


Someone like you

by a_purple_pygmypuff_called_arnold1 (barbarayoufucks), Dobby_is_the_father



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: wizard_love, F/M, Teen Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:58:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 45
Words: 52,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbarayoufucks/pseuds/a_purple_pygmypuff_called_arnold1, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dobby_is_the_father/pseuds/Dobby_is_the_father
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the first of September and you're the daughter of the famous Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and you've already made an enemy and even worse it's predictable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The start

**Author's Note:**

> Huges is Hugos nickname,

I stepped onto the train, trying to see Albus through the haze of tears but without letting them fall. I couldn’t believe it, all I had wanted for at least the last two years was to be heading off to my dream school with all of my best friends and cousins and now I wanted my mum and my dad. What about lily? What will i do without our weekly book club/shopping? And Huges, my baby bro, I'm really crying now!

I sat down next to Al and frank ( ~~Neville’s~~ , I mean professor Longbottom’s son). I’ve known them forever.  
“I bet I’m in Gryffindor!” said frank, pretending to wield the sword of Godric Gryffindor,  
“Don’t be an arse, Frank,” replied Al, “I dunno I think that I’ll be in Gryffindor, but you know what they say ‘if you want to make merlin laugh, tell him your plans.”  
“To be honest id be overjoyed if I got Gryffindor but I think I’m more of a Ravenclaw.” I stated, not attempting to hide my disappointment  
“come on rose, you’re the daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and you’re just like aunt Hermione,” said Al to reassure me, “anyway, at least we can be sure that were not going to be in Slytherin!”  
“Let’s not even go there” frank chimed in.

The boys started a pointless argument on quidditch teams – the Chudley cannons or Puddlemere united. They had had this conversation so many times it was unreal, and every time they came to the same conclusion, the Puddlemere United’s seeker was better but the Chudley cannons’ had better strategy. Personally I had always favoured the Holyhead harpies but if I ever told al that he would be so embarrassed – it was aunt Ginny’s ex-team. After about 20 minutes they were still harping on about it. Luckily, I packed mum’s old book of the Tales of the Beedle Bard; Hogwarts, a history and of course my favourite muggle book Pride and prejudice.

it had been at least another half hour of when the food trolley rolled up. I was so glad, I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and I was starving.  
I slid open the compartment door and I saw the boy dad pointed out to me as his school-time nemesis’ son- Scorpius Malfoy. He was tall, had platinum blonde hair and steely grey eyes that looked exactly the colour of the cloudy day sky under the bewitched ceiling of the great hall that I had seen pictures of in Hogwarts, a history.  
“a pumpkin pasty and a chocolate frog please” we said in perfect unison.  
The lady pushing the cart handed it to him first, he shook his head and nodded towards me, as I went to bring out my purse he had already given her a shiny silver sickle and 3 knuts.

After the trolley had been wheeled away Scorpius was about to walk away until I stuttered  
“hi I’m rose, Rose Weasley. Why did you do that? I mean pay for me.”  
“I thought it was obvious,” he chuckled, “after all, great minds think alike.”  
“thanks, I mean I wasn’t expecting it, well considering-” maybe I had said too much.  
“considering what?” his cool smirk turned to a puzzled, kind of hurt look.  
“never mind, I just-” I had definitely said too much.  
“you just assumed that I am like my father. Everything he did during the wizarding war disgusts me. Of course it does, he was a bloody death eater but it wasn’t his fault, his dad was a monster, Lucius pressured my dad into joining and he ran at the end. I thought you of all people wold know not to judge someone after all you are daughter of two very famous wizards.”

I found this speech like a weight on my shoulders- I hadn’t even arrived at Hogwarts yet but I had already made an enemy. I plodded back to the compartment and watched al and frank play portable wizard chess. It was fascinating- dad had always mocked uncle harry for how terrible he is at chess; I had just now realized that Al had inherited his father’s pathetic board game abilities.

After a chatting and playing, it had since turned 5 o’clock and Malfoy had walked in, looked at Al and Frank - particularly avoiding my eye contact -and said that we’d be arriving soon.

“Hey, you’re that Malfoy kid aren’t you? why don’t you join us?” Al suggested kindly.  
“I’ve gotta get back to some people but, bye – that potter kid.” He smirked, but kindly, and walked out.

Only 20 minutes later the big, scarlet engine pulled up outside of Hogsmede, the building was just as magical as mum had described.

“Rose, Al, Frank” a tall bulky man bellowed.  
“Hagrid” we all replied in chorus.  
“yeh all look so big now! I ‘aven’t seen yeh since Harry’s 35th” tears forming in his glistening eyes.

James strolled over, some sort of old parchment in hand – dad told me about the marauders map but I thought uncle harry had that.  
“What’s up, Hagrid” the 2 of them then proceeded to do a special hand shake, however I didn’t see how it was possible considering James’s hands were half the size of Hagrid’s.  
“right James you know where to go,” he said to James, and then suddenly

“FIRST YEARS FOLLOW ME”.

He lead us to a river/lake that we crossed in little boats each holding an oil lamp, then we got our first glimpse of the school. It was even more fairy-tale like than mum said.  
We climbed up to the castle, everyone in their robes, just as apprehensive about the sorting as each other, but all equally too proud to show it.


	2. The Sorting

Professor Longbottom lead all of the first years in to the great hall, as the shuffles grew louder, I was searching for Dom, Victoire, Louis, Fred, Roxie and Lucy.

Louis and Lucy were part of Ravenclaw, much to their parent’s disappointment, but no-one really minded, and the others were at the Gryffindor table, right at the front so the newest Gryffindor pupils could get their advice first.

I had kind of blanked out for a moment, I only realised when I felt Al nudge me as frank walked nervously up onto the stage and perched on the stool. No sooner than the hat went on, it exclaimed “Gryffindor!”

Next was Malfoy, I tensed up, I had forgotten I had made an enemy. He was a hat stall.

“you seem to care for others, a Hufflepuff trait” “you’re brave like a Gryffindor” The whole hall gasped as Malfoy’s eyes widened, _what would his father say?_

“However,” the hat continued, “you are smart,” it stopped, the whole hall went silent,

“Ravenclaw!”

Malfoy looked shocked, but happy, very happy. So did the whole Ravenclaw table.

After a while it was Al’s turn – he was in Gryffindor. And then it was me, I too was a hat stall – it kept going on about Wit and Ravenclaw but everyone could tell I wanted to be a Gryffindor. I had almost lost hope in the third minute but then out of nowhere, the hat bellowed “Gryffindor!”

I felt as if I could breathe freely again.

As I was one of the last to be called, the feast commenced only minutes later. It was great, I had a pork chop and buffalo wings, and washed down with the freshest pumpkin juice I had ever had.

I met a first year girl called Florence, (Flossie) she seemed almost exactly like me but more creative. She was also very smart, and she loved the muggle author Shakespeare, her favourite play was hamlet, and she did a very good act of Hamlets monologue.

I also met another girl in my year called Ruby – she was very bubbly and crazy, very different to myself but she seemed really kind.

Flossie said her mum was muggle-born Gryffindor and her father was in my parents’ year in Ravenclaw.

Ruby said she her parents were both in Hufflepuff, so she didn’t know what their reactions would be.

As Headmistress McGonagall finished her announcements the prefects lead us up to the common room, this week the password was pestinomus.

All of my stuff was laid out, I got my pyjamas on and started to write to mum and dad.

The letter went like this

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_I’m in Gryffindor! I was a hat stall though, I was certain at a moment that I was going to be in Ravenclaw like Louis and Lucy, oh and Malfoy! You know for a second there the hat was about to put Scorpius in Gryffindor, you can imagine my shock._

_I have met 2 girls called Flossie and Ruby, they seem really nice. Flossie said her dad was in your year, in Ravenclaw – her last name is Boot- ring any bells?_

_Hogwarts is just as beautiful as you have said, I couldn’t believe the levitating candles – will we learn to do this?_

_Tomorrow I have charms, DADA, transfiguration and potions, does that sound any good to you?_

_I love you, and Huges so SO much! I miss you too,_

_Please write me back soon_

_Lots of love,_

_Rosie xxxx_

I took Owldini (my owl named after a muggle magician), opened the window and asked her to take the letter home. As soon as she left, I felt a wave of fatigue hit me. I clambered into bed and as my head hit my pillow, I was fast asleep.


	3. The first day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's POV

I woke up, still shocked by the sorting – how could I not be in Slytherin? Not a Malfoy in history hasn’t been in Slytherin. To be honest I think I was glad not to be exactly like my father. Of course I love him but he was slightly, well, evil…

It was 5:30 am, I had at least another 2 hours until Breakfast started so decided to write to mum and dad. The letter read:

_Dear mum and Dad,_

_Hogwarts is amazing!_

_But you’ll never believe what house I’m in… Ravenclaw. Please say you’re not mad, I know Lucius will be mad but he won’t talk to us so what does it matter? But it was about to put me in Gryffindor!_

_I think I’m going to like it here, I’ve already met Albus Potter, he seems really nice, and funny too but his cousin, Rose seems like a new academic rival. I can’t wait for the first test!_

_Today I have DADA, Transfiguration, Charms and Potions, sound good?_

_I love you so much,_

_See you soon,_

_Scorpius_

I tied the letter to Ares’ leg, his golden brown feathers were slightly ruffled as he had recently been out hunting, I opened the window and felt a rush of cold autumn air go through me.

Ares suddenly leapt off of my arm and soared through the light morning mist. I stood there and stared at the grounds for a moment, I couldn’t believe that I was at Hogwarts, it all seemed so weird, considering how long I had been wanting to go.

I climbed back into bed – the clock read 6:02 am – I knew I had another hour until I had to get up but there was no chance of me getting back to sleep so I started to read _Hogwarts, a history_.

* * *

_Beep, beep, beep…_

There went my alarm. I got up, and showered and got into my robes. I felt so smart and happy.

A couple of mates and I went down to the great hall from the tower for Breakfast; the spread was just as good as the night before. Most of the first years were still full from the night before (like myself) so only helped themselves to cereal and fruit but the years above had seemed to have learned how to steady themselves because they were having the works: bacon; eggs; sausages; toast, you name it!

At 8 o’clock exactly did an assembly of owls fly through the open windows into the hall, Ares wasn’t there but home was far away so I don’t think he could’ve flown home and back in 2 hours. Despite the lack of _my_ owl, mum and dad’s owl Darth Vader (Dad’s really obsessed with the muggle film franchise _Star Wars)_ flew towards me and perched on my goblet. If Ares tried that he’d end up in the pumpkin juice. But back to the owl, Darth Vader was carrying some Fizzing Whizbees and an envelope – the note said:

_Dear sweetheart,_

_I hope you are enjoying Hogwarts, it’s really magical isn’t it? I just wanted to remind you that blood status doesn’t matter. I know you have never thought that and you never will. Just don’t make your fathers mistakes. I love you so much, and I will see you at Christmas._

_Xxx mum (write soon)_

The handwriting changed

_Hi Scor,_

_I know you won’t make my mistakes but just trust me, the only things that matter is happiness and acceptance and thinking you are superior doesn’t lead to any of those things. I love you to the moon and back,_

_Dad xx_

I smiled and finished off my breakfast with my new mates.

Our first lesson was charms with professor Flitwick, dad had said Flitwick was there when he was at school, I believe him but Flitwick really wasn’t looking that old. Unfortunately, headmistress McGonagall wanted to _promote inter-house unity_ so we had a seating plan and of course, I was next to Rose Weasley.

“hi!” she said excitedly (guess she was just as happy about being in Hogwarts as I was), and then she saw it was me. Rose attempted a smile, but it was pathetic.

“Don’t use that fake smile with me Weasley!” I said jokingly.

She smirked. “You may be smart, but I will be smarter!” she replied in a similar tone.

The remaining part of the lesson was filled by competition between Weasley and I, it was fun I’m not going to lie. But that doesn’t cancel out the fact that she’s insufferable.

* * *

The rest of the day was pretty similar, I met a friendly Slytherin 1st year called Jack. He was my partner in my last lesson – potions.

The dinner was really good, although I paced myself this time in the hopes that I’d get to try the bacon at breakfast.

We went up to the Ravenclaw common room and had a tournament of wizard chess, I came third. I have to say, Cameron (a fellow first year) was surprisingly good at it, considering he wasn’t very academic. And the winner was the captain of the Quidditch team, a 5th year called Isla Miller.

We were all pretty tired so we headed off to bed, I got into my PJ’s and I red myself to sleep.

 


	4. the First year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to rose's POV

The rest of first year was all quite calm, not like mum and dad’s and uncle Harry’s at least. I spent most of it:

Getting lost

Avoiding James’ pranks

Yet continuing to root for him, Roxie and Fred at the try-outs

Cheering for them when James made seeker, Roxie made chaser and Fred continued his father’s legacy by making beater

Cheering James up when he missed the snitch (but they still won)

Reading

Doing homework

Being sat next to Malfoy in nearly every class

Being insulted by him

Trying to ignore him

Not succeeding at it

But still getting a higher score in every lesson

Gloating

Being told I was an arse by Al

Winning the house cup

Going to parties celebrating winning the Quidditch cup as well

And packing to go home


	5. Summer

It was Harry’s birthday, and we were all getting the party set up. I got really bored around one so I started reading _A history of Magic_ – for light reading.

As the clock turned five the fire places became increasingly busy, and loads of ministry workers began apparating on the front lawn.

* * *

First of all, I would like to point out that me and all of the kids hung out in the garden, so not to be asked about Hogwarts for the millionth time.

Along with Al and the others I was testing out some of the new WWW products (mum wouldn’t let Uncle George give us the possibly harmful ones, Uncle George rolled his eyes).

There were hair growing toffees which grew your hair 20cm per toffee. Teddy laughed, rolled his currently blue eyes, and made his hair grow to the floor. He is a metamorphmagus. It is so cool!

The next treat was levitating sherbet lemon, luckily we could only go so far above the ground.

Teddy coughed – it sounded fake – but I handed him some water, he declined and said he was going to talk to “the golden trio”.

About five minutes later, Victoire, Dom and Molly went to get more food.

James then continued to discuss quidditch strategies with Fred and Roxie. The conversation then turned to famous teams and _their_ strategies. Al and I were getting so bored! We’re not quite as mad about quidditch as dad, Harry and the others.

Suddenly a thought popped into my head, dad probably had a copy of _Quidditch Teams-Everything you need to know._

“Al and I will go get a useful book,” I said, kind of relieved that I got to leave.

As we walked away Al whispered in my ear “thank you!”.

We talked for a while to Uncle George about his new Hogsmeade shop, apparently it will be re-opened in our 3rd year. I couldn’t wait!

I Quickly realized that the others were probably waiting, so I let Al talk to Uncle George a bit longer.

As I headed to Dad’s old room I was wondering when we’d get our booklists, I loved Diagon alley. I tried to remember what books the teachers recommended but said weren’t compulsory.

As I got to the top of the stairs, I heard a thump. I thought Teddy’s owl had gotten loose again so I hurried to the room. I pulled open the door expecting to see a frustrated owl. I did not see an owl, I saw my cousin, Victoire, doing a lot more than snogging on the bed with Teddy. A Lot more than snogging!

Teddy threw a pillow at me, whilst Victoire squealed “GET OUT!”. I quickly rushed to the bathroom and splashed water on my eyes, trying to wash out the image from my mind. I kind of stumbled down the stairs, dazed. I mean, I knew they were together, but not _that_ together. I just walked outside, trying to forget about the whole situation.

I got down stairs and I must have looked shocked because Al noticed and asked me what was wrong.

“nothing” I replied, still dazed.

“come on, you look like you’ve seen a ghost! That’s a muggle expression you know. But seriously, whats wrong?”

“I would’ve rather seen a ghost,” I muttered.

“wait where’s the book?” Al suddenly realised.

“erm, promise you won’t tell anyone.” Was I doing the right thing?

“I promise”

“well, you know how that’s Teddy’s room when he stays at the burrow, I saw him and Victoire,” I grimaced “doing a lot more than snogging in there. On the bed.”

“seriously?!”

“they didn’t even use the muffliato charm!” I said, trying to whisper but too disgusted to even try it.

Uncle harry walked over, “Happy Birthday!” I exclaimed, attempting to suppress the memory from earlier.

“You looking forward to next year?”

“yes!” I sighed, “I mean I’ll miss my family but summer at the burrow is full on.”

He nodded, agreeing.

Al quickly made an excuse to leave, and I followed back out to the garden.

Teddy and Victoire came down 1 after another, looking slightly dishevelled. When they got back out to the garden they avoided eye contact with me and each other completely.

Teddy carried on doing things with his appearance to make us laugh, but his hair colour wouldn’t get as bright as usual.

I had been reading about the metamorphmagus, and sometimes their powers don’t work when they are upset or under pressure. Mum said that when Tonks (Teddy’s mum) was in love with Remus (Teddy’s dad) but he was gone she couldn’t transform at all.

* * *

As the clock struck 1 o’clock AM the only people who were left were Uncle Harry, Auntie Ginny, Mum, Dad, Teddy and us kids.

Granny insisted that we all stayed the night because it was “Too late to floo”

Mum and Dad didn’t believe her but they were too pissed to bother to go home.

Later that night, after Lily had fallen asleep I quickly wrote Teddy a note and slid it under his door, it said

_Hi Teddy,_

_I know it’s late but I just wanted to say sorry for walking in on you and Victoire (next time use the muffliato charm!). Also I won’t tell Mum or Dad or even Huges._

_Xxx Rosie_

The next morning, I woke up really early to hear a tapping at the window. It was teddy’s owl carrying a small note, to be honest I didn’t know why he had to wake me up, but at least I knew he had read it, it said

_Thanks Rosie, I knew you wouldn’t and thanks for the tip! Teddy x_

I couldn’t get back to sleep after that so I just read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter is really short, i just had a bit of writers block...  
> feedback would be great!


	6. no title

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, this chapter has no title but i just couldn't think of anything. Also, it's quite short - had a bit of writers block.  
> feedback would be great!

To be honest I had expected 4th year to feel a lot different, however I didn’t really feel that different despite being over halfway through my Hogwarts relationship.

However, I felt more included since joining the quidditch team as keeper – I took over from Dom (she got scouted by the tutshill tornadoes at the end of her 7th year!).

The first match was against Hufflepuff, it was the last week of October so it was just starting to get colder but when I told mum I had become keeper she gave me an insulating charm, which had come in use – not only in quidditch.

As madam hooch blew the starting whistle and in a fraction of a second Roxie had grabbed the quaffle and was zooming towards the Hufflepuff rings, I could hear the crowd cheering – and the Hufflepuff’s booing!

She scored!

20 nil to Gryffindor!

Suddenly I saw the Hufflepuff chaser zooming towards me, I was excited but scared. He curved about 9 meters away from the hoops and lobbed the quaffle at the lowest hoop. I realised straight away what he was going to do, I shot to the hoop and caught the ball, I was so relieved!

As the ball was taken to the other side of the pitch, I looked to the spectators and I saw Flossie cheer and then return to her book, trying to ignore Ruby shouting at the top of her lungs.

Only a couple of rows above I saw Malfoy wearing a Gryffindor scarf and also cheering. Al and him had become friends so he was there for him but we made eye contact and he winked. I smiled back and continued to concentrate on the game.

I saved 4 more goals  but let 1 in. there would’ve been more attempts but James was really on his toes, he caught the snitch only 45 minutes into the game. I was kind of tired but I knew I would have to work up my stamina.

* * *

There was a party afterwards in the common room, James was standing on the table with Alice Longbottom either grinding up against each other or eating each other’s faces (vigorous snogging). It was disgusting.

Since It had turned 8 so I technically wasn’t allowed outside of the Gryffindor but I sneaked into James’ dorm and took the Marauder’s’ map and then carried on into Al’s but then I realised that I wouldn’t need the cloak if I could see who was coming.

I silently crept away from the party with my book. I reached the room of requirement and opened my book.

I heard footsteps and consulted the map, professor Flitwick was coming my way. Meanwhile the room of requirement’s door still wasn’t opening so I ducked into the broom cupboard that was closest.

“Lumos” I whispered.

I gasped. They gasped.

I should explain.

James and Alice weren’t the only ones who were “in love”. Ruby and Cameron – Scorpius’s mate – were making out, well until I came in.

I cringed and then explained why I was in here.

When we decided the path was clear, Cam headed back to the Ravenclaw tower and Ruby and I headed back to our common room.

She started to discuss the yule ball. Dresses. Shoes. Hair. And dates.

“What are you gonna wear, Rosie” she asked

“I dunno, I’ll see when it comes”

I got back, had a shower, got into bed and started to draw. I didn’t know why, I hate drawing, but I had an image of what I wanted to wear to the dance and I didn’t want to forget it.


	7. Yule Ball, part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the Yule ball is just a christmas ball, there isn't a triwizard tournament on.  
> id love some feedback!

Christmas was growing closer and Ruby was getting very excited. Myself, meh. Ruby was going with Cam, James with Alice, Flossie with Al and me with… no-one.

To be honest I didn’t really like any boy, I just wanted to go. Of course I was too shy to ask anyone.

It was kind of perfect that I had transfiguration, surprisingly, because I sat next to Malfoy.

I know what you are thinking, but it wasn’t like we were going to fall in love and die by each other’s sides.

This lesson we were focusing on the basics and how to perfect them, you know matches into needles, animals into goblets, conjuring and vanishing.

It was beyond easy for both Malfoy and I so we attempted turning a teapot into a tortoise. It was understandably quite hard, considering it was an OWL level spell but I did get quite close – the tortoise moved and made noises but its shell still had a flowery pattern. Malfoy, however, had gotten the shell the right colour but it was camouflaged like an army uniform – I had seen pictures.

I thought that was a little weird considering the teapot had the same design as mine, and I don’t think I was the only who was confused. Malfoy and I reversed the spells, and started to talk.

I find him insufferable but he could always come up with interesting topics of conversation.

“I heard Cam is going to the yule ball with Ruby,” he said, trying to make small talk,

“yeah,” I grimaced “I walked in on them making out in the broom cupboard near the room of requirement” I replied.

I sighed, I still didn’t have a date

“You’re going with Andrea Travers?” (she was a very hot Ravenclaw in my year).

He paused

“I mean, she’s your girlfriend”

He shook his head, “Well, she got clingy, then I distanced myself and then she hooked up with a fifth year, so I broke it off” he sighed “ I am kinda glad but I still need a date to the b-“

“Go with me.” I interrupted, impulsively. “As friends I mean!”

Malfoy looked confused and then smiled, “Sure, I’ll go with you. as friends I mean”.

“you do realise that we will have to be civil to each other,”

“Yes I do, do you realise that you will have to call me Scorpius, not Malfoy?”

“yes, and you will have to Rose or Rosie, not Weasley.”

We shook hands to confirm the deal. I was happy. I didn’t have to make myself look very pretty for the ball which was my biggest worry. I mean I was cute but I wasn’t hot.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me,

“Malf… Scorpius,” I whispered while Professor Browne was talking about wand movement.

_Write me, she won’t get pissed if she can’t hear us –_ he wrote

_Ok, I was just thinking about what people will think when they see us at the ball, -_ I replied

_Don’t worry, we’ll tell them the situation and if they don’t believe us, well they can go F*$k themselves._

I smiled, that comforted me.

Christmas lunch had finished, so Ruby and Flossie were getting ready, and so was I.

Ruby wore a sea-green tight knee length dress, her hair was really curly and bouncy, even more so than usual.

Flossie wore a white dress with violet flower patterns on it that moved, it was of the shoulder and slightly longer at the back than at the front. Her normally tied back hair was out and straightened. She was really beautiful.

My dress was periwinkle blue and flowing. I had also used the Sleak-eazy hair tonic from WWW. All of the frizz in my hair had gone and all that was left were light waves. Since I am terrible at doing make up I went to find Ruby in the bathrooms.

“oh my god, Ruby you look amazing!” I exclaimed.

“I look amazing?” she questioned, “you look amazing! You look so different; do you want me to do your eyeliner?”

“ooh, yes please!”

Just as I finished that sentence, Flossie walked out from a changing room.

“ROSIE!” she practically screamed.

I guess I looked very different because when Lily walked in her eyes widened and she ran and hugged me. Lily then left to go see Al and James and send the pictures to Aunt Ginny.

“so, Rosie, who _are_ you going with?” Flossie asked, I still hadn’t told them for fear of being judged. I went red.

“Erm… you’ll see.” I smirked.

“oh but Rosie…” Ruby moaned

“oh but Ruby…” I replied in an equally annoying voice, “any way, are you going to do my eyeliner or what?”

“okay, you look really pretty you know,”

I smiled, I love my friends.

It was five minutes to seven and I was supposed to meet ~~Malfoy~~ Scorpius at the grand entrance at seven, so I was about to leave when Ruby came up to me and decided she’d walk with me to meet Cam. I knew she’d see me with Scorpius at the ball, but I still didn’t really want anyone to know.

Better sooner than later I thought.

I saw Cam and Scorpius standing together, just talking. Cam suddenly stopped talking, his eyes were fixed on Ruby, it was true she did look stunning. (I must point out that I went to toilet, so I am just repeating what Ruby told me).

“wow, you look amazing,” stammered Cam.

Ruby went red and replied “thanks.”. she kissed his cheek and went into the Great hall, which had been magically transformed into a winter wonderland.

As cam was being dragged off, he said something that Ruby found a little bit curious, he said

“don’t worry mate your ‘mystery date’ will turn up soon”

Cam snapped his fingers in front of Malfoy’s eyes, but he didn’t avert his gaze.

That’s when Ruby realized that he was looking at me, I personally didn’t believe it.


	8. Yule Ball, part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's POV  
> Feedback welcomed.

It was Weasley but she looked really, really good. She was walking down the steps, when she almost tripped but I got there and stopped her.

“I could’ve done that myself you know,” she said, smiling.

“*tut tut tut* Civilized, remember?” I replied.

“sorry,” she sighed, “I meant, thank you Scorpius, whatever would I have done without you here to save me?”

“now now, that’s enough sarcasm for one night!” I exclaimed, jokingly.

I held my arm out, signalling for her to take it and let me lead her in, surprisingly she took it.

We walked into the great hall together, it was amazing. There were dozens of ice sculptures, and there were spheres of ice sitting on the tables, illuminating the surrounding area. The wall lamps had icicles hung it, they were glistening under the candles.

“it is truly amazing” she said, smiling.

“I know.” Both of our eyes were both fixed on the 15 foot Christmas tree that was covered head to toe in non-melting snow.

“I guess we should go find Cam and Ruby and co.” I carried on.

She sighed, “I guess”.

I bet she was still worried about people would think. I was a bit worried too, but I knew it was going to happen sometime.

“OH MY GOD!!!” Ruby squealed/shouted. Rosie went so red, it was hilarious!

“You didn’t tell me you were going with Malfoy!”

“well I knew you would react like this…” she replied.

“ _you_ cleaned up well,” Ruby said, gesturing at me.

“You look remarkably like your dad, especially your hair.” Cam added. I never really liked being compared to my dad, I mean I love him, but especially since I’m at Hogwarts, I don’t like being reminded of his old self.

Growing a bit fed up of the conversation, I jumped up and asked Rosie to dance.

“Why not?” she replied.

We walked up to the dance floor, arms linked. The song that was on was quite slow so I opted for a waltz.

It was weird, her hands were resting on my shoulders and when I moved my hand down to her waist, she raised her eyebrow so I was about to move them back but she told me to keep them there.

You know when you get butterflies in your stomach, that was the second time that had happened that night. The first was when I saw Rosie walking down the steps. I was sure it meant nothing, especially at that moment in time.

When the song had finished and a faster one had started I had made my way to leave the dance floor, rosie grabbed my hand and pulled me back in.

“you can’t leave before the lady says she’s tired, etiquette rule number 1” she smirked.

We danced a bit longer, until _she_ got tired. I, personally, was getting tired about 2 songs ago but of course I had to abide by Queen Rose’s rules.

As we walked back to the table, Al smirked at me and whispered something to Rosie that made her laugh, I don’t know what it was. It’s kind of bugging me.

The food was amazing, there were cakes and finger sandwiches and tarts and mince pies. It all looked so good, if only I didn’t eat so much at the Christmas feast.

When I picked up a mince pie Rosie took it out of my hand. And started to eat it.

“You know in Muggle England it is technically illegal to eat a mince pie on Christmas Day. It all leads back to the commonwealth period and Oliver Cro-”

I covered her mouth and took the mince pie out of her hand and thus returning it to its rightful owner. It was a good mince pie too.

“Hey! I was eating that!”

“and so was I”

We laughed.

The clock just turned quarter to twelve, and the ball always finished at twelve exactly. The band seemed to be getting tired so they were only playing really slow songs. It was actually kind of perfect if you were full of cakes and illegally eaten mince pies, because I didn’t quite want the night to be over just yet so

“can I have this dance?” Rosie asked.

“why not?” I smirked.

She grabbed my hand and walked on to the dance floor, it was just like before, her hands on my shoulders, my hands on her waist, except we were both a bit tired by then, so she was kind of leaning on me. I can’t say I hated it.

We just danced silently until the band stopped playing, I thought, in that moment, that this had been one of the best days I’ve had since joining Hogwarts so, um, I leaned in to kiss her, and for a second she kissed me back.

In those few moments, I was so happy; then she pulled away.

“u-um” Rosie stuttered.

“I, er, I, s-s-sorry” I was panicking.

“I’m just gonna, well, the ball’s practically over now, so, I’m gonna go.”

She quickly grabbed her cardigan and hurried out of the great hall. Ruby, Flossie and Al followed her. Cam was about to come up to me, when I made eye contact with him and walked away.

I was breathing really hard and fast, I felt light-headed so I slumped down in a corner.

I thought I was crazy, I mean, I did kiss Weasley. I couldn’t tell you why, but I was crying. Not bawling, or sobbing, but sad crying.

I didn’t fancy Weasley, not even a little bit, so it wasn’t really the fact that she pulled away. It was more that I knew we wouldn’t go back to being friends, not soon anyway.

I trudged back to the tower, just looking at my feet, it felt like years since I saw Weasley walk down those steps, and it felt like days since I started walking back to the common room.

“What breaks when you say its name?” the portrait slurred.

“Merlin, you couldn’t have come up with something more challenging, anyone could come in!”

“Don’t think that the teachers were the only ones who drink firewhiskey at Christmas! And I don’t see you coming up with any answers!”

I rolled my eyes and said clearly “silence.”.

As I stepped through the portrait hole, cam came up to me and started to talk. I didn’t catch a word of it, eventually I came out and shouted, “Stop! It won’t be ok! She hates me!”

Cam just backed away, I didn’t get angry very often. I stomped up to the dorms. Despite being almost half-past 12, no-one was in the room.

I just got my pyjamas on and started to read. It was the only way to stop the tears from falling.


	9. The Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's POV

When he kissed me, there was a second where I kissed back, but I realized that I needed savage the friendship.

After I pulled away, we stared at each other for a moment, it could’ve gone one of 2 ways: we returned to the kiss or we stop and run away from the situation.

When I pulled away, I realised that it was that same boy I met on the Hogwarts express, that I made an assumption about and how I was so, so wrong. It made me sad. I loved him so much, as a friend, but it hurt to just run away.

The thing that really hit me hard, is when Scorpius said “sorry”. I didn’t want him to be sorry. I wanted him to tell me what he really thought of me, I wanted to know whether he meant it.

Al, Flossie and Ruby all came running after to me, it was nice to see they cared about me but I really didn’t feel like talking about it.

“Rosie,” Flossie said, in her comforting tone, “It’s going to be ok…”

Al walked up to me, and at that point, I just started crying, not bawling or sobbing, just sad crying.

When we got to the common room, I couldn’t bear to be in the common room, explaining to the others why my eyes were red.

Flossie, ruby and I went into the empty 4th year girls’ dorms and talked.

I buried my head in my pillow,

“Rosie, what happened?” ruby said in her most concerned voice, I guess she didn’t see the whole thing.

I had stopped crying by then, I just kind of felt embarrassed and numb.

“well,” I sniffed, “he kissed me, and I kissed back, but then I pulled away because I thought it would ruin our friendship. And then he said, sorry.”

“oh Rosie!” Flossie exclaimed sympathetically.

I was starting to tear up again, “why did he say sorry? Does he like me or not? What do I do from here?”

The conversation went on a while, probably for about an hour. It eventually came to this.

“Rosie, I don’t know, but you need to pick yourself up. I say this in the nicest way but he was annoying AF. I love you so much and I’m sure things will get back to normal soon.”

Somehow this was comforting.

As it got to 2, we got into bed and ruby and Flossie fell asleep almost instantly. I found it difficult, I just had too much on my mind.

“lumos” I whispered.

I got out my book and started to revise the transfiguration, I took Owldini and she shed a feather. I practiced turning the feather different colours.

I still wasn’t tired so I went over the basics of charms. It was pretty good that I got to practice the muffliato charm because Owldini was really missing her feather because she wouldn’t shut up!

It was a quarter to 4 when I got to sleep. I was exhausted.

December 26th was quiet. I got up at 7, got dressed and went to breakfast. I kept looking, but Malfoy wasn’t there.

I got a letter from mum and dad, that always makes me happy. The letter read:

_Dear Rosie,_

_Merry Christmas! I hope the ball was good, better than your dad’s at least! I’m sorry we only got you some sweets and books nut your present will be at home when you come at Easter._

_As this was your first Christmas at Hogwarts, I have to ask, did you like the food?_

_It’s really good isn’t it?!_

_I remember when your dad and I came back after The battle and the food was twice as good as usual, I hope it has kept up to that standard._

_Your dad is with Uncle harry at the moment, their testing out new brooms on the rent-a-pitch. I just hope Harry keeps all his bones (another story for another time)._

_I love you so much, I miss you too._

_xxxMum_

_(PS give Hugo the other letter please)_

By the way, there were two letters.

Hugo came up to me,

“here’s a letter from Mum.” I attempted a smile as I handed it to him.

“thanks,” he replied, “Rosie, what’s wrong?”

“nothing, well, I only got 3 hours of sleep, so…”

“wow, the ball must have been good then!”

“yeah,” it was good, very good, Until, you know.

“listen Huges, I gotta go, I am exhausted! But how about we play a game in the common room tonight?” I carried on.

“sure, love you.”

“I love you too!” I kissed him on the head and walked out.

Just as I got to the door, I checked the Ravenclaw table just one more time. No luck.

I was barely able to hold myself upright, I was _that_ tired. My eyelids were so heavy that I didn’t see who was walking towards me, or who bumped into me. I bet you can guess who it was.

“u-u-uh” Scorpius stammered.

“hi.” I replied, trying to cut out the tension.

“hi,” he sighed, “I am really sorry about last night.”  
“why?” I asked, “do you like me or not?”

“I’m sorry because you obviously didn’t want me to kiss you.”

I went red, maybe a little part of me did want him to kiss me, but I was half-drunk on butter beer.

He carried on “And, I don’t, don’t think I like you. Can we go back to being friends?”

I had to stop and think for a second, then I finally came to my conclusion.

“I don’t think that we can, not yet at least. I need to sort out some things and I think you need to as well. I am really sorry, but I just need time.”

He nodded solemnly, and I walked away. Not looking back.


	10. Last week of term

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Al's POV

The next few weeks were unbearable. My cousin moping around the common room. My friend moping around the courtyards. They were both too anxious to go to the library, because of the small chance that another one would be there. To be honest, I don’t get why they are so scared, they still sit next to each other in EVERY lesson – that we have with Ravenclaw.

I was getting serious with Flossie, but I had to keep it quiet around Rose and Scorpius, I hated doing it, but I just couldn’t make it worse for them.

Everyone could tell how much they liked each other, and how much it was tearing them up inside not to be on good terms.

The occasional “hi” would surface if they passed in the corridor. And they would sometimes talk to each other in class, but only ever about work.

It had been horrible. Rosie would only ever leave the common room for food, quidditch and classes, and Flossie had told me that she hadn’t been sleeping very well at all.

Hugo was also worried, Rosie had always been so happy and bubbly and now she just read _1984_ and _animal farm_ (muggle, slightly depressing, books) by George Orwell over and over again.

For the first week of term I accepted it, Scorpius and her had been close – closer than you’d expect a Weasley and a Malfoy would be.

It got a bit too much at the start of February, it was just making them both so much more miserable; of course it took guts to do this but I was helping.

I should explain, the last week of half-term, Professor Watson (the muggle studies teacher) set a project, you had to watch a muggle movie and review it. In partners.

I being the great human being I am, I decided to tell all of our group of friends not to pair up with rose. You will see why. I’m not horrible. I then told everyone in cam and Scorpius’s group of friends not to pair up with him. You see where I’m going?

As they still sat next to each other, it wasn’t hard directing. After a while, they realised what was happening.

I smiled, the plan had worked.

I made sure that I listened to the next conversation.

“so…” Scorpius started.

“yes” Rose replied.

“Half-term is coming up; we could do it then?”

“actually, I’m taking advantage of the floo connection that Professor McGonagall has set up for half-terms, so I’m going to be spending it celebrating grandad’s belated birthday at the burrow. But, are you going back to Malfoy manor?” she asked.

“I couldn’t decide but if I did we could floo somewhere and watch a movie.” He replied

“the Burrow will be extremely chaotic, but do you have a muggle television?”

“mum loves tv series’, so, yeah. And also, any film preferences?”

I could tell Rosie couldn’t decide – she loved movies.

“er…” she started “vertigo, by Alfred Hitchcock is good. But I also love freaky Friday with Jodie Foster is also a favourite.”

“we should probably start being friendly again…” Scorpius stated.

“I know,” Rose said, “Let’s forget the ball ever happened.”

The smile faded from both of their faces, but quickly reappeared when they realised that they could be themselves, and start being happier again.

I have to say, I was very proud of my actions in that situation.

Rosie had become more social and cheerful after muggle studies, she started hanging out with a prefect called Brian Fletcher, he is a beater along with Fred. I personally didn’t like him; he is so full of himself – just because he was the first person in his year to produce a patronus. I kept wanting to point out that Dad produced one in 3rd year.

He walked up with Rosie, ugh, she deserved better. He such an arse to James, since James made captain over him. It wasn’t even a surprise! I mean James is my brother but he isn’t actually as arrogant as he is with me, and he has leadership skills, and, oh yeah, he’s a year older.

You’re probably thinking that he can be too bad, and I have an unfair perspective but he asked if he could ask Lily, my baby sister, to the ball. I said no. It would be disgusting. When I told her, she was really mad, but she then realised why I did it, and accepted that I’m always right. And then, he asked her anyway, I love that my little sister is smart.

I think Rosie really likes him. It pisses me off. But luckily we’re both going to the burrow for half-term so I’ll have a week to try and convince her to listen to me.


	11. Half-term

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very long chapter!  
> Rose's POV

Half term was really fun. The highlight was, of course, grand-dad’s party, but I’ll describe it all.

Al was really bugging me though.

“don’t go out with Brian fletcher.”, “he’s a perv”. Al repeatedly said in a really nagging tone.

I just learnt to shut him out by Sunday evening. Which meant the party on Saturday was a nightmare.

It was very similar to Uncle Harry’s, apart from the fact that I didn’t walk in on any relatives having sex. So it was significantly better.

Also, instead of lying on the grass, sweating and listening to pointless quidditch talk, all of my generation had a massive snowball fight.

James, Lily, Teddy, Victoire, Roxie, molly and I were in a team.

Al, Huges, Dom, Fred, Lucy and Louis were in the other.

It was so fun. I hit Al extra hard, because I still hadn’t learnt to block him out yet.

Having James, Teddy and Roxie are the most competitive people in the Weasley clan. (when it comes to sport, I would obviously trounce them in academic competitiveness) I was really lucky because they were all on my team and molly just reminds me of Uncle George so much, she is so fun to be with. And Victoire is just so elegant (obviously because she is part veela) that when you see her going crazy and not being elegant at all, it just makes you really happy.

This went on until the other team surrendered, yes, we were just that good.

The game lasted about half an hour though. By the end, nobody could feel their fingers and were practically frozen to the bone so we hurried inside.

I went upstairs to change, my clothes were soaking, and I didn’t want a cold.

I was shivering so much; I could barely grab the door handle.

Figuring that we wouldn’t be heading out, I put on the prettiest party dress that I could find (which meant trying to find a pair of tights without a hole in!). just as I undressed, an owl with beautiful, golden brown feathers tapped on my window. I frantically attempted that could cover up more than my underwear did, I was only able to get hold of a blanket. Despite being unusual, it did suffice.

I took the letter from the owl’s talons, the handwriting was very familiar, about a millisecond later I had realised that it was Malfoy’s. The letter read:

_Yo Weasley! That’s what some muggles say to their peers, it’s a bit weird if you ask me, but I had been doing some research for the project. Since we’re on that topic- are you busy tomorrow? Or Monday? I didn’t want to leave it to the last minute._

_Please reply asap, Scorpius xx_

I read it over, I wasn’t busy the next day, so I figured that there was no time like the present. I quickly scribbled my reply, it said

_Yo Malfoy! Actually I retract that, I am far too dignified to say that. I am not busy tomorrow, so it would be great to get the project off my mind. Shall I bring the movie? Anyway, just checking, can I floo to your house? And if so, would I just say “Malfoy manor”?_

_See you soon, Rosie xox_

_(PS I accidently flashed your owl, sorry if he arrives home a bit dazed, only I’m a sight to see, aren’t I? just kidding!)_

As I sent Ares off, I slightly regretted sending the last bit, but that emotion was quickly squashed when I realized that I had been gone for 10 minutes and I was only in my bra and pants, oh, and a towel.

I quickly picked up the dress, and pulled it over my head, I did the same with tights.

Realising that I had been gone a quarter of an hour, I ran down the stairs and bumped into auntie Ginny.

“you look nice!” she exclaimed

“thanks, you too. How was the world cup heat between England and Germany?” I asked. To be honest I wasn’t really that interested but I felt like talking to my Aunt Ginny.

“It was a boring game; it was always gonna go to Germany. The England team has really gone to shit.” Her eyes widened, “don’t tell your mother I said that, she’ll kill me.”

We laughed.

The next person I talked to was Uncle Bill, we were talking about goblins, I think that they’re very interesting creatures. Dad hates them, mum tries to be forgiving but I know she still holds the stuff Griphook did against them secretly.

I did the rounds a couple more times, and then I realised it was half past 12, I thought I had better go to bed.

When I got to the room, Lily wasn’t there, I guessed she was still downstairs mingling. There was an owl tapping at the window, as you might have guessed, it was Ares. The note read,

_Hey Weasley, yeah, could you bring the movie? It’s still The perks of being a wallflower, right? Also, to floo here, you just say Malfoy manor. 12 o’clock would probably be best, does that work? I guess the party will go on late so if you could keep Ares until the morning, I hate it when he flies in at night. Please don’t hold that against me._

_Scorpius Xx_

“looks like you’re staying here tonight, Ares.” I chuckled at the bird.

It was getting really late, so I decided to try and get some sleep.

* * *

I woke up at 11 am, I was frantically searching for some paper to scribble a reply to Malfoy –

_Just woke up! Be at yours at 12, maybe quarter past!_

_Rose xx_

I headed to the bathroom to shower. It was occupied.

I banged on the door, “hurry up!” I shouted.

“alright, alright!” James said back, chuckling to himself.

About a minute later, I was fed up of waiting so I stormed in.

“Rose!” he squealed, desperately trying to cover up his junk.

“calm down! I’ve seen it all before,” James was confused, I laughed, “just look away and I’ll get in the shower, ok?”

“sure,” he replied.

I undressed, tied my hair up, put my towel on the chair and jumped in the shower.

“what did you mean by you’ve ‘seen it all before’?” he asked.

I laughed, “I just meant that I used to have baths with you and Al and Huges, so it’s not anything new.”

“good,” James sighed, “if my baby cousin had been sleeping around, I would be, well, absolutely shocked.”

“hey!” I replied, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“it just means that I can’t imagine someone like you, very academic and sensible, um, being a slut.” He said bluntly.

“ok.” I sighed, happily though.

I quickly rinsed off the soap, only just remembering that I had to be at Malfoy manor in 30 minutes.

James had left by that point, so I got out of the shower, wrapped myself in the towel and went back to the room.

I was going to wear a skirt, but Lily took it, I was slightly pissed off but I found an equally stylish pair of high-waisted jeans, so no harm done.

I couldn’t believe that when I had got dressed and done my make-up, it was already 10 to.

I walked down the stairs, only to be greeted by a wolf whistle from James. Mum and Grandma laughed. But along with aunt Ginny, I glared at him.

I was gobbling down some toast, feigning to listen to the conversation.

With five minutes to go I brushed my teeth and put on some perfume, and then I suddenly remembered the movie.

I ran to the attic, I knew grandad had the movie, he bought it because he said the girl on the cover looked just like mum. I grabbed the movie and ran downstairs.

I got downstairs and I realised that I hadn’t told mum that I was going.

“hi mum, I’m going to a mate’s house to do a muggle studies project, be back before tea.” I said, grabbing a handful of floo powder.

“who’s house?” she asked.

I had already said Malfoy manor whilst standing in the fireplace, so I didn’t answer, but I think she knew what the answer was.

I really dislike going by floo, it makes you all dusty and makes your head spin, it’s quite unpleasant.

I arrived with a thud, only to see Scorpius standing over me.

“one minute past twelve, your late.” He smiled.

My reply was an eye-roll and nothing else.

He helped me up. I got the first look at the house. It was immense, it was dark and very intimidating.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he started, his mood suddenly darkened, “we won’t be staying in here. I really hate this place. I’m surprised that you agreed to come here, after what the death eaters did to your family, especially your mother. I don’t know why we didn’t sell; it’s just dad thinks no-one will-”

“stop,” I interrupted, it hurt to see him suffering for what his family did, “please, it wasn’t you, and your father did stall the death eaters from calling Voldemort-” Scorpius flinched, “sorry.” I carried on.

“it’s okay, we just try to stay away from that subject.” He replied.

In his home, he seemed humbled. It was sad. Scorpius was silent for a second, but then he perked up a bit. “shall we start the movie?” he asked.

“sure.” I said as I handed the Dvd to him.

“Merlin!” he exclaimed, “that does look like your mother!” it’s true, it did.

We climbed up the stairs to his bedroom. The bedroom was very different to the rest of the house, it had 3 or 4 windows so it was full of natural light and the walls weren’t all grey – they were painted a lovely shade of baby blue. However, on one of the walls, you couldn’t see the colour at all because there was a massive bookshelf, stretching from one wall to the other, it was filled with beautiful leather-bound books. Just in front was an old television set, like the one mum said she had when she was little.

“so, this is my room…” he said.

“I see,” I said, “it’s beautiful.”

Mrs Malfoy opened the door, “hi darling, ah, you must be Rose, nice to meet you.” she said in “queen’s English” – a muggle phrase for a posh accent.

“very nice to meet you too, Mrs Malfoy.” I said as I shook her hand.

“no, no, please call me Astoria. Anyway, I’ll let you two get back to the movie, lunch will be at two o’clock. Is there anything you can’t eat, Rose?”

“Only bananas. But they don’t affect me that much.”

“no problem, Scorpius doesn’t eat them anyway. I hope the movie is good.” She said as she walked out.

Malfoy looked puzzled, “I didn’t know you were allergic to bananas.” He said.

I laughed, “It’s nothing, really. I only come out in a rash. Shall we get on with the movie?”

“yes.” He replied, and then put the Dvd into the player.

I really, really love that movie. I know it may just be me, but Patrick really reminds me of James.

This was probably the 20th time I had watched it, yet I still cried when Charlie found out that his aunt used to molest him. Tears were streaming down my face, and my eyes were blotchy.

Scorpius was solemn. He looked over at me, registered that I was crying and hugged me. It was awkward for a moment, but then I realised that it came from a good place, so I sunk into his arms and just stayed there for a moment. It was comforting to think that he wanted me to be happy, in a friend type of way.

I sat up and dried my eyes, “we should probably start writing the review” I said.

“yeah, I’ll write though, you don’t want tear-stained paper do you?” he replied.

I laughed.

Shortly after, lunch was ready. It was really good. Not grandma molly good, but still very tasty. We had pasta with tomato and tuna. It was very good; the conversation was stimulating but also quite intimidating.

Mum and dad had always described Draco as opinionated and, well, slightly evil. They had met a couple times when Astoria and Draco were pregnant with Scorpius, and they were pregnant with me. Oh and mum went into labour when the Malfoys were there, but apart from cards every Christmas we never saw them.

Draco came downstairs, “hi,” he greeted me, “you must be the Weasley spawn.” Astoria nudged him, I giggled.

“well, you’re not wrong.” I replied, whilst he laughed.

We went on to talk about books and movies and, surprisingly, the muggle world. Draco seemed quite nice, mum and dad will be surprised.

After lunch, Scorpius and I finished the review and then I introduced him to Doctor who, his mum had the Dvd. It was my favourite doctor, David tenant, and at the end of the 5th episode we had watched, he was in awe. I smirked.

“Oh. My. God.” He said.

“it’s good isn’t it!” I exclaimed.

“we’ve watched 5 in a row and I’m still on the edge of my seat.”

At that point I hadn’t realised how many we had watched.

“shit!” I whispered, loudly, “what time is it?”

“2 minutes to 6.” He replied.

“merlin! I have to go, can I let you take care of the review?” I asked.

“sure” he said, as I hurried towards the door. I got to the door but turned back remembering the Dvd, I was about to ask when he handed it to me and, of course, smirked.

We got to the hall and lit the fire.

“bye Weasley.” He said.

“Bye Malfoy.” I replied.

I grabbed a handful of floo powder and said “the burrow”.

As the green flames engulfed me, I saw the cold, hall of the manor turn into the warm, loving setting of the burrow.

After I tumbled out of the fire place, I checked the clock. 6 o’clock. Exactly. I stood and dusted myself off.

Dinner that night was interesting. Mum had obviously told everyone that I went to Malfoy Manor, so the questioning was seemingly endless. I will not bore you with the details.

* * *

The rest of the half term was spent playing board games with my cousins. It was quite fun.

On Sunday afternoon, we were getting ready to return to Hogwarts, when James walked into my room. He looked pretty distressed.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“Alice is pregnant.” He said numbly.

“and you…”

“yes, I’m the father.” He replied irritably.

“sorry,” I said, “how’s Alice?”

“not good, she’s really freaked out. To be honest so am I.”

I got up and hugged him, he started crying.

“It’s going to be ok, I promise.” I said, “have you told anyone else?”

“no, I just found out. I couldn’t really tell my siblings and Mum would kill me.”

I didn’t disagree.

“you can apparate now, so you and her can go to St Mungo’s after lessons. May I ask how many times-” I was cut off.

“I dunno,” he replied, “6 or 7, but only once without a condom. How was I so stupid?”

We carried on for a while, but then we had to pack.

At 5 exactly the floo system was ready so Al, Lily, Huges, James and I disappeared into the flames and returned to the halls we loved so much.


	12. The Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> James's POV  
> Feedback would be welcomed!

I had been at Hogwarts for less than an hour when Rosie told me that the Longbottoms had arrived. I felt really bad but I couldn’t bring myself to come out of the dormitory. I was scared. Really scared. It wasn’t until dinner-time that I could drag myself from unpacking/hiding; I wasn’t planning on eating, I was quite full from a late lunch and I just wanted to think about some stuff.

I trudged down the steps from the dorm to the common room, expecting to only hear the roar of the fire, and see only empty chairs. But I saw Alice, curled up on a chair with red eyes and blotchy, tear-stained cheeks.

I went up to her, sat on the edge of the seat and hugged her. There was a second where she resisted, but then she must’ve realised that I was there for her.

“It’s going to be OK.” I whispered in Alice’s ear, I felt her tears on my neck. I was trying to stay strong, but it was killing me to see her in so much pain.

She sniffed, I carried on, “I am so sorry. If I just wore a condom.” My eyes were filled with tears; it was all my fault.

Alice removed herself from the hug and dried my tears, “it’s not your fault, _we_ should’ve remembered. We’re in this together.” She said. I had never loved her more.

My heart seemed to sink, “Are we going to keep it?” I asked. Her face froze. And her breathing became heavy.

“Uh, I don’t know.” She replied numbly, “What do you think?”.

I was panicking, I didn’t want to be the decision maker. “If we did keep it, how would things work? We’ve only just become 17 and we are still to finish our NEWT’s.”

“I don’t know. I could leave school and find a place, so you could study.” She said.

“that’s hardly fair!” I protested, “You want to become a ministry worker, you need the degree more than me.”

We talked for hours, whilst people were in the common room but we kept our voices low.

“I don’t really think that I can handle a kid.” She said, just as the clock struck half past eleven.

“Me neither,” I replied, “so, shall we make an appointment at St Mungo’s?”

Alice sniffed, and nodded. “I love you so much.” She said with a sad smile.

* * *

The Saturday after we had returned to school, Alice and I were standing in Hogsmeade ready to apparate.

“ok, you ready?” I asked.

She gave a solemn nod and grabbed my arm. We swirled though the sky and within seconds, we were in London, standing outside the hospital. As we walked in, slightly anxious, we were greeted by a friendly receptionist with a thick west country accent.

Walking up to the desk, we heard her signal to her colleague, “Oi Russ!” she shouted, “That cake you made yesterday was gert lush!”.

We arrived at the desk, “an appointment for Longbottom with healer Fawley. At quarter past eleven.” Alice said.

The receptionist replied, “okay love, he’ll be just a minute. Please help yourself to coffee-” Alice retched, “tea or water.”.

Those few minutes were the most stressful of my life. My head was spinning, and I couldn’t help bouncing my leg and tapping my fingers.

“Miss Alice Longbottom” the voice boomed.

“guess that’s me.” Alice said.

“Do you want me to come?” I asked.

She nodded shyly, kissed me on the cheek and whispered “thank-you.”.

The room was very clean and sterile. In that moment, I wished that I was as well.

“so, miss Longbottom, why are you here?” he asked.

“I- er- I’m pregnant. And I wish to get an abortion, is that possible?” she stammered.

“yes, of course. How far gone are you?” he asked.

“I dunno, 2 weeks, maybe 3.”

“No problem. So the procedure will take 2 sessions, will you be available tomorrow?”

“yes, what will the procedure involve?” Alice asked.

“you will have to take a potion, it starts working after the first session, so take it easy after today, and in tomorrow’s session we will do a scan and you will take the last portion of the potion and that will be you done.” He explained.

He handed Alice the drink, she sipped it slowly and grimaced. It must’ve tasted horrible, nevertheless she carried on drinking. She was so strong.

Once she had finished, she stood up and fell back down.

“ah,” Healer Fawley said, “you might get dizzy spells, I recommend that you floo back to your common room, I wouldn’t apparate until tomorrow.”

“thank you Healer” I said as I helped Alice up and lead her towards the fire. Shel stepped in to the fireplace and said clearly, “Gryffindor common room”. I was close to follow.

The next session was just as good, Alice and I walked out of the hospital relieved and feeling free again. I was so proud of her; I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been. I was glad it was all over.


	13. The celebration of 16 years of my existence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's POV

5th year had been pretty calm, there weren’t really any complications. I did my OWL’s and James did his NEWT’s. We hadn’t received our grades yet so I was waiting on an owl. This summer, we spent it at our house, instead of the burrow. Of course we went there like once or twice a week.

This summer was special; dad was throwing me a late birthday party (my birthday is on May 28th). I had never really liked parties when I was younger, so I made a compromise with dad- he wouldn’t throw me any parties when I was younger, but on my 16th I would plan a big party.

I still dislike parties.

As soon as I got to Kings Cross when I was arriving from Hogwarts, dad hugged me and Huges, but proceeded to ask for a list of guests.

I quickly scribbled a list when I got home.

_Flossie_

_Ruby_

_Cameron_

_Family_

_Teddy (obviously)_

_The Longbottoms_

_The Scamanders_

_The order_

I handed the list to dad,

“is that all you want?” he asked.

“you don’t realise that I don’t really like people, and the ones that I do like are not part of the majority.” I smiled, Dad laughed.

“Ok, is it ok if we have the party here?” he asked.

“of course!”

That night, I started writing the invitations, they went like this:

 _Hi_ [name of recipient],

_As you might have known, it was my birthday on May 28 th so we are having a belated birthday party. It will take place on the 30th of June at the Weasley/Granger house. Floo here by saying ‘the Weasley/granger residence’ or ‘17 Trevor place, London’, or just apparate (if you can!). The party will start at 7:30 pm. Rsvp by the 29th, hope you can come!  
Rosie xx_

* * *

The next day I received many replies. And only when I read cam’s reply did it dawn on me. I had forgotten to invite Malfoy.

Cam had asked whether it was ok to mention it to Malfoy, just because we had an argument on the last week of term. We made up, but things were still awkward.

I told Cam to abstain from mentioning it to Scorpius for the while, I hadn’t made up my mind.

I should explain, the week before term ended, Malfoy started laying into me about my boyfriend, Lucas Wood, who was a year above me. Then I started to talk about his new girlfriend, Eliza Kinley, who was also a year above us. They were dating but then she got obsessed with the Hufflepuff quidditch team and then they got competitive because he’s on the Ravenclaw team and it just fell apart.

I don’t feel that comfortable with my dad meeting Lucas yet. I’ll wait ‘til next year to tell him.

Anyway, it took me a while to decide whether to invite Scorpius. I eventually came to the conclusion that I had become quite close to Astoria, and whatever I say, Scorpius will always be a mate. And also, dad, uncle harry and Draco, it’s hard not to laugh at the notion.

Because it was going to all of the Malfoys, I wrote the invite on special paper with my neat handwriting, Scorpius would have laughed so hard when he saw it, I’m not generally known for being neat.

The invite was way more formal than the others, it read:

_Dear Draco, Astoria and Scorpius,_

_I would like to invite you to my belated birthday party on the 30 th of June. It starts at 7:30pm, and it will take place at our house, to floo here just say ‘the Weasley/Granger residence’, ‘17 Trevor place, London’. I hope that you will be able to come. RSVP by the 29th. I hope to see you there._

_Rose Weasley_

It was weird, the handwriting did not look like mine, it was all neat, joined up and swishy. Nevertheless, I popped it into an envelope and gave it to Owldini. As I watched my owl soar into the blue, cloudless sky, I wondered whether I did the right thing. It was too late now.

* * *

The afternoon of the party was very warm; not too warm, but just right. Mum and dad were fixing up the conservatory and kitchen for the party, they wouldn’t let me have a look, they said it was a surprise. I don’t like surprises; I like to be in control of what’s happening at all times. It’s a hard thing to keep up.

Around 5, Aunt Ginny, Uncle Harry, Al, James and Lily arrived. My door swung open, and in burst Lily,

“why are you on the top floor!” she half-shouted, out of breath. I guess she had run up.

“Why did you run?” I laughed,

“to see what you’re wearing. Not that I hope.” She said signalling to my ¾ leggings and Kinks tee-shirt.

“why? What’s wrong with it?” I joked, “should I wear a dress?”

“Yes!” Lily gasped.

“I was just kidding but…” I trailed off when I saw Lily going through my wardrobe. She had found all of the dresses (I had 3) and threw them on to the floor. I sighed. We had one of those mental conversations.

 _No_ I said.

 _‘No’ what?_ She replied

_I’m not trying all those on!_

_Yes, you are!_

This went on a while; I should’ve realised at the beginning that I would not win a debate with Aunt Ginny’s daughter.

The first dress was blue and satin. It was the one I wore to the Yule ball. I loved the look of that dress but all it gave me were bad memories. And it didn’t really fit me; it was really short.

Lily took one look at me and said, “Next!”.

Sometimes her bluntness astounds me. To be honest, I’d rather have bluntness than fake complements.

The next dress was a beautiful shade of teal green. It was quite tight but not in a sexual way. It went down to 2 inches above the knee, so it wasn’t too short. Lily examined me up and down before making a decision, “a contender,” she said, “next!”.

The last dress was very pretty. It was a cream base colour but it had loads of multi-coloured flowers on it. It was 3 or 4 inches above the knee. There was sweetheart neckline and 2 straps, both about an inch wide.

“Yes!” Lily squealed.

“I dunno” I replied, I guessed it had been a while and a cup size since I had tried it on in the shop, “it feels really tight around my chest.”

“you just haven’t seen it.” Lily said to reassure me.

I turned and looked in the mirror. I looked really nice. Now I just had to do my hair. Luckily for me, Victoire and Dom had arrived. Unluckily for ‘me, they insisted on doing “sans magic”. They kept saying, “it looks more natural!” and “It’s less messy!”. Personally, it took too long and they wouldn’t let me look until they finished.

They insisted on an up do, because “it [was] too hot to have your hair down!”. As you may have guessed, I am very impatient.

The hair pulling seemed endless, at first it hurt, and at the ten-minute mark I became numb to the pain.

It was finally finished, after 20 minutes!

“oh my god! Is it over?” I exclaimed.

Victoire, Lily and Dom laughed,

“what?” I said in reply.

“Make-up!” they squealed together. God, I was not like them.

“Avec magic?” I asked, hopefully.

Victoire nodded, I sighed with relief.

She flicked her wand and golden sparks flew out of the tips.

Then Dom took the sheet of black paper from the mirror.

My hair was beautifully done up in a braided crown, with 2 wisps of hair but the sides of my ears. My make-up looked really good; my lashes were twice as long, my cheek had colour and I had a perfectly done eyeliner.

“thank-you!” I hugged them all.

“I like working with a blank canvas.” Victoire joked.

I ended up asking them to go and spy on the decorations for me. They said that dad had told them that I’d make them do that. He was not wrong.

We spent the hour before the party just talking it was quite calm.

The rest of the family got he just before the party started, when Molly ran into my room. She gasped when she saw me.

“Blimey Rosie! You have tits!” Molly said as she cupped and lifted my boobs; she was never one to hide away in awkward situations. Lucy walked in and gave Molly one of her _stop embarrassing me_ stares. Molly stepped back and Lucy hugged me, “you look beautiful, Rosie!” she exclaimed.

“Not too much chest, though?” I asked, “I don’t look like a whore, do I?”

Everyone laughed, “Rosie, that’s not possible.” Molly told me in a comforting way.

A few minutes later I realized that people would be flooing into my house, suddenly, James apparated into my room.

“I’m just coming down.” I said.

“wait a moment, everyone else, leave.” He replied.

Everyone walked out, apart from me and James.

“so, I’ve been instructed to put this blindfold on you, so it will be a surprise when you see the decorations that Al, Hugo, our dads and I worked so hard putting up.” He told me.

“very well, do what you need to do, I’ll come quietly.”

He reached round and tied the black scarf around my eyes.

I stumbled around trying to find something to hold, James grabbed my shoulders and lead me down the 4 flights of stairs to the kitchen and the garden. It was very worrying that the guy who dropped his wand down the toilet twice in one week was controlling my fate.

We got downstairs and James pulled the blind fold off. I sighed. It was beautiful.

There were multi-coloured lanterns floating around the trees and garden. Of course there were enchantments so that to unaware muggles, it looked like standing lights.

The fence was hung with daisies and roses and – like every Weasley party- lilies.

There were circular tables, but there was an area for dancing.

“Merlin, mum! This is amazing!” I exclaimed.

“don’t thank me, it was all your Father’s idea.” She replied.

I ran at dad and gave him the biggest hug I could have.

He kissed me on the head, “I told you I would pull out all the stops!”

I turned to Al, James and Uncle Harry,

“thank you so much for setting it up, I love you guys!” I said.

Uncle Harry hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

“you shouldn’t be thanking them,” Al said signalling to his father and brother, “Hugo and I were the only ones not using magic!”

I thanked Al personally and kissed him on the cheek, he went red. I laughed.

People started arriving soon after. First it was the Longbottoms, then Flossie and her family, Hagrid, Ruby and her family, Cam and his family, the rest of the order, and then the Malfoys.

The golden trio – Draco encounter was a funny one.

“Potter.” Draco said.

“Malfoy.” Uncle Harry replied.

“Weasley.” Draco said.

“Malfoy.” Dad replied.

“Granger.” Draco said.

“Actually it’s Weasley, but hello Draco, how are you?” mum said.

“I’m well, what about you?” he replied.

“we’re good, I heard our children like competing.” She replied.

They started talking about Hogwarts these days, and jobs and Astoria and Mum started talking about muggle novels. That took a while.

Grandma had really outdone herself this time, the food was amazing!

It wasn’t till a while later did Malfoy come up to talk to me.

“what was up with the writing on the invite?” he asked, “I’ve seen your exercise books and they look like a war zone!”

“I just knew your family was fancy, so I wanted to be fancy.” I said.

“anyway, aren’t you going to show me around?” he smirked

I rolled my eyes, “sure.”.

We looked at mum’s library, and the rooms on the first 3 floors. Then we got to mine.


	14. A Malfoy in Queen Weasley territory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's POv

Weasley’s room was light and airy, it had several skylights on the roof to help that. The ceiling was a light shade of sky blue with beautiful clouds, but the other walls were white.

After focussing on the colours and main shape of the room, my eyes were drawn to the gold.

“What’s with all the snitches?” I asked.

There was a stuffed Snitch sitting on the bed, some Snitch tacks pinning pictures to a corkboard, little lights in the shape of Snitches strung up, and an actual Snitch, which looked very old, sitting in a little holder on the bookshelf. Weasley played Quidditch for the one year in 4th, and even then, she was a keeper – a bloody good one at that.

“oh, I when I was little, I was, well my dad made me, very obsessed with snitches. It’s kind of just stuck.” I replied.

I smirked, and I carried on looking through Weasley’s belongings. I came across 3 copies of _Hogwarts, a history_ and on the discovery of the 4 th I had to say something.

“Merlin Weasley! 4 copies!” I exclaimed.

“Now, now Malfoy, didn’t your mother ever tell you about keeping to your own.” I rolled my eyes, she carried on, “Anyway, talking about mothers, apparently you were _very_ into dragons. Expand.”

“Stop corresponding with my mother!” I said, in an admittedly whiny voice. “anyway, dragons are AWESOME and snitches are about as common as red hair and freckles are at this party.”

She just laughed.

She sat on the edge of her bed whilst I carried on nosing through her records.

“now, do you really listen to this, or do you just put it out for people to see?” I asked.

“exactly.” Weasley said sarcastically, “I have nothing better to do than make myself look more worldly.”

I laughed. Then my eyes were drawn to a picture, it was of Weasley and I dancing at the Yule ball. We looked happy. Very happy.

Weasley must’ve noticed that I was looking at the picture, because she started to talk, “Flossie took that picture while we weren’t looking, she put it in my stocking last Christmas, we looked really happy. That night was fun.”

“yeah,” I replied, “until…”

“we should go back downstairs.” She cut me off, and walked swiftly out of the room. I followed, just after closing her closet doors (I’m a bit anal about open doors).

The garden was really well decorated, I loved the flowers. And the lanterns gave the night sky a warm glow.

Al walked up to me,

“Hey, like the decorations?” he asked.

“yeah, they are beautiful. Your family must’ve worked hard on this.” I replied.

“Me! I was the only one who helped without magic!” he seemed really agitated, I sniggered. Al rolled his eyes.

“anyway, I’m going to go ask Flossie to dance so, go ask Rosie to dance. The sexual tension between the two of you is unbearable.”

I laughed, “I have a girlfriend, remember?”

“A- that you haven’t seen since Hogwarts, and B- what will one dance do?” he said, condescendingly.

“You saw what the Yule ball did.” I was never one to lose my temper.

Al walked away, shaking his head.

I walked over to Cam and Ruby, who were just getting up,

“um, we were just going to-” Ruby started.

“Go dance, I’m going to sit down.” I cut her off.

Cam smiled.

I sat down, leaned back and thought, _what did Al mean by ‘sexual tension’ all we do is fight and make snide comments towards each other._

I figured that it won’t do any good thinking about it.

I strode up to Rosie, “want to dance?” I asked.

“sure.” She smiled back at me.

I held my hand out, she took it.

Whilst dancing, I asked, “Where’s Lucas?”.

She rolled her eyes, “never you mind!” she joked.

We danced in silent for a moment, it wasn’t awkward, it was sweet. The song changed after that, it was a happier, more upbeat. I was a bit clumsy and it’s hard to be graceful when you’re 6 foot and dancing with someone who’s only 5foot 6. We were trying to keep in time but it’s quite hard when you’re laughing so hard your stomach hurts.

“when we get back to Hogwarts, can we forget about the argument from the last day of term? I know the whole school saw it but, well-” she said.

I nodded. We carried on dancing.

Ginny potter then came up to us, “Say cheese!”

We laughed, “It’s for Hermione’s parents” she explained.

As I left to floo home, Weasley came up to me, “thank you for coming!” she said and hugged me. It was slightly weird, but she was a mate so I just embraced it. That night was a good night.


	15. The stress of being a 6th year, a prefect and a good friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's POV

The beginning of 6th was pretty normal, Lucas and I were happy and Malfoy and Eliza were as cute a couple as ever. Malfoy and I were also back to normal, competing and joking; life was good.

This year we were going to do the patronus charm in defence against the dark arts, it was hard, I’m not going to lie. Picking the memory was even harder, at first I chose the first time I saw Hogwarts. No mark. Next I thought of the snowball fight in February a few years ago. A silvery wisp shot out of my wand, but no patronus appeared. I was close to giving up when I saw Malfoy getting close, I really liked the challenge. The last memory I chose was my 16th birthday party, seeing everyone I love dancing, myself included.

“Expecto patronum!” I exclaimed. A silvery tiger cub jumped out of the tip of my wand, I was ecstatic. The tiger was running and pouncing on the tables.

“wow Weasley! I’m impressed!” Malfoy said, “Now leave, I need to work on mine.”

I carried on practicing, but then a lion roar stopped me in my tracks. The silvery lion was standing strong with a full mane. I saw the trail it left, it was from Malfoy’s wand.

“Pretty good, if I must admit.” I said, “anyway, professor Longbottom told me to tell you that you and I are on Hogsmeade duty this weekend, hope that doesn’t screw anything up with you and Eliza.” I chuckled.

“Ok,” the bell went, “see you tomorrow.”

We then went our separate ways.

I woke up pretty late Saturday morning, so I was stressing out. I got out of thhe shower only 3 minutes before I had to meet Malfoy, I was hurrying. I put on my jeans and a large jumper with The Who logo on it. I was a minute late for Malfoy already and I couldn’t find my coat. _Bollocks_ I thought, I just grabbed my summer jacket. And ran.

Breathing heavily, I got to the main entrance.

“Merlin! What happened to you Weasley?” he laughed.

“woke up,” I said panting and gasping, “10 minutes ago.”

“ok,” Malfoy replied, “let’s just sit down for a while so you can get your breath back. Anyway where’s your coat?”

“couldn’t find it, I’ll be fine.” I shrugged, Malfoy laughed.

“You’re a wizard Weasley, ever heard of the summoning charm?” he chuckled

“oh yeah, but it’s too late now because I’m not running up all those steps again! We should probably go now.”

“Yep.” Malfoy replied, standing up.

At 9 on a Saturday morning, on the 4th of November, you should be wearing a coat. Not a jacket. A heavy-duty coat.

I was shivering, “are you okay?” Malfoy asked.

“no.” I replied bluntly.

“ok, I know we’re supposed to stay outside, to patrol outside, but let’s get a butterbeer.” He replied.

We walked into the three broomsticks, I sighed with the feeling of warmth returning into veins.

“2 butterbeers please.” Malfoy ordered.

“one with a bit of ginger please” I added.

We sat at the bar, and talked for a while. It didn’t take long to finish the drinks; I didn’t want to have to face the harsh cold.

We got to the door and Malfoy took out his wand and performed the insulating charm,

“Thank you!” I sighed, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!”

“no problem, as long as you stop moaning.” He joked.

The Hogsmeade trip was almost over so Malfoy and I were going round the shops, checking for any pupils that haven’t left. No one was there.

It seemed like the insulating charm wasn’t very strong, because I was shivering before we even got to the station.

“My hands are too frozen to perform the charm, will you?” I said.

“my hands are shaking too, just…er” he handed me his scarf.

“What? You don’t have to do that!”

“Yes, I do, because even though you didn’t remember that you were a wizard, you still would have held against me for being organised and not lending you the scarf that I remembered.” He said.

“you know me so well.” I smiled.

We eventually got to Hogwarts, both frozen to the core.

“Need…warmth…now…going…to…go…too…cold…to…talk…bye” I gasped. And turned away.

I trudged into the dorm, feeling cold. Very cold. Flossie was in there grasping a letter, crying.

“oh my god! Are you ok?” I exclaimed. Only when she faced me, did I realise that she was smiling.

“I got in! I got the internship! The editor of the Daily prophet read my piece and offered me the Christmas internship!” she squealed.

I was shocked, is it possible to be happy and sad at the same time? Well in that moment of time, I was. You see, I entered that competition, and I thought I did well, but all I got was a pathetic participation certificate and a letter about how I could’ve improved. But I knew it was code for ‘you failed, it was pointless you entering and I think you should give up all together’.

“SHIT!” I screamed. “You got in!”

“I know, yours was great too though.” She replied.

“No, if it was good enough, I would’ve gotten that letter too. Anyway, I’m gonna have a bath in the prefect’s bathroom, I’m frozen.”

I picked up my bikini and towel and walked out.

Walking through the corridors, tears were forming in my eyes. I hated it every moment where my feelings of sadness for myself were overriding my feelings of happiness for Flossie. It was petty. But that’s what I’m like.

I whispered the prefect’s bathroom’s password (pine fresh). I was startled to see Malfoy lounging in the pool.

“oh, sorry, I’ll come back.” I said, turning back.

“Don’t worry, I’m just going to leave.” He replied.

I went into a cubicle, changed into my bikini and got out just as Malfoy got out of the pool.

“Are you OK? Only you look as if you’ve been crying.” He said. I started to cry.

“It’s petty,” I said, “I didn’t get an internship, and Flossie did. I’m happy for her, but I wish that the voice in the back of my head would stop saying _you’re pathetic,_ and _if you were just better…_ ” by that time I was sobbing.

Malfoy hugged me. It wasn’t weird, it was sweet. I just sunk into it for a moment, trying to forget what just happened.


	16. Potions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's POV

It was the last day of term and I walked into potions, very tired. I had got little sleep the previous night. There were 3 cauldrons at the front of the classroom.

One with a bubbling, mud-like liquid that I instantly recognised as polyjuice potion. I hadn’t used it, no, but I had read a lot on the subject.

The next was a colourless, odourless potion, that I understood to be veritaserum.

And the cauldron on the far corner, by my table, was a potion with a mother of pearl sheen, and spiralling steam. It was amortentia. No doubt about it. I bet you’re wondering what I smelt. I smelt new books, summer night air and something refreshing, and flowery. I couldn’t figure out where I had smelt it, but it was very familiar. I sat down, next to Al, opposite Weasley and diagonal to Flossie, Ruby and Cam. Weasley and Flossie were closest to the potion.

“did anyone else see the amortentia?” I asked.

Everyone nodded, or replied with a synonym of yes.

“it smelt of clarinet reeds, hairspray, old music manuscript and chocolate.” Flossie said.

“to me it was the smell of petrol, the stuff that makes muggle cars run and chilli con carne.” Cam said

“it was my cats, cake and fresh blush.” Said Ruby.

Al replied with, “treacle tart, and the Weasley jumpers.”

Weasley was staring at the Amortentia, “is she ok?” I asked.

“She hasn’t spoken since she saw the Amortentia.” Al informed me.

“Weasley!” I said, and clicked my fingers in front of her face.

She snapped out of her trance, “I smell the library, fresh linen, the sea and sandalwood candles or perfume or cologne. I can’t tell where I’ve smelt it before though. It’s really annoying me.”

Professor Slughorn walked in, “good morning 6th years!” he said, chirpily, “now I must say, I really enjoy this lesson, I’ve done it every year since 1996. Today you will all be competing for this,” he held up a tiny tear-drop shaped flask full of a molten gold liquid, “Felix Felicis!” he announced. “does anyone know what this does?”

A Hufflepuff called Dave Falcon put his hand up so quickly you would’ve thought it apparated there.

“Mr Falcon.” Said Slughorn.

“it makes you lucky!” he declared.

“Very good! 5 points to Hufflepuff! So the only thing you have to do is make a draught of living death. Page 20 of your textbooks. Begin!”

It was all a bit quick, but I was confident, I had read a lot on this potion. Well, I read a lot on most subjects. On everything really.

I won’t describe the process; it was pretty easy. All I will say is that you had to pay attention to every little detail. Cam, though very good with words, was quite clumsy and he stirred his potion 7 times clock-wise and once anti, but the recipe was the other way round. After a while, his concoction had an uncanny resemblance to molten tarmac. It smelt like liquorice though. So not too bad, but it wasn’t supposed to smell like that.

Mine resembled all the stages in the book, but I added an extra stir, so at the end it was a bit too dark. Oh well.

The time was up and mine looked alright, not perfect, but alright.

Slughorn started on the other side of the room. The first table was the group of Slytherins, Isaac’s was “passable”, Kia’s was “poor” but Jack’s was “a very good attempt”.

The next table was full of the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw group of friends. All of their potions were okay, none exceptional, none terrible, so I thought I was in a good position.

Lastly, Slughorn got to us. Of course, Flossie’s was “amazing!”. I had given up then. “extremely good!” was the comment for mine. Al’s was okay, and so was Ruby’s. As the professor’s eyes locked on Cam’s cauldron, I just sniggered. Cam shot me a dirty look. That made me full-blown lose it.

Slughorn only said one word to cam, “Abysmal”. I couldn’t stop laughing.

The last person to be judged was Weasley. She had been quiet all lesson. It was very weird for us to not hear her constant chatter. Slughorn’s eyes widened. “Wow,” he said, stunned, “We have a clear winner.” He announced to the class.

Weasley looked shocked as Professor Slughorn handed over the small vial.

We walked out of the dungeons.

“I have to ask; how _did_ you do that?” I said to Weasley

“I read the instructions, and I focussed.” She replied.

“No shit?” I exclaimed, jokingly.

“Are you looking forward to the internship?” Cam asked Flossie.

“Very!” Flossie responded.

I averted my gaze to Weasley, she looked solemn, but her eyes were fixed on the ground, so I couldn’t quite see her expression. After what happened in the prefect’s bathroom 2 days ago, I tried to keep away from that subject – I didn’t know if she thought the whole situation weird and awkward.

We got to the grand hall entrance, to eat lunch. I pulled Weasley aside and asked,

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll get over it. I _am_ happy for her. Really.”

“I believe you, just checking.” I said, as we walked into the hall to get a sandwich before transfiguration.

I sat next to Weasley in transfiguration, she seemed much more chipper than in potions. The smile she wore stretched from ear to ear.

“what’s made you so happy?” I asked.

“I officially have a date to the yule ball.” She said, pleased.

“Well, go figure.”

“what do you mean?” she asked.

“You’ve had a boyfriend since the beginning of this year. It’s obvious.”

“ok, it’s just, I’m happy.”

“Good.” I smiled.

We practiced changing the colours of our partner’s eyebrows. It was hilarious, Weasley’s eyebrows were an unsightly shade of grey and green. Mine, however were bright, Weasley-ish, orange.

Professor Boulting, the transfiguration teacher, set us a project, it was to try and work out why the firm hand movements are so vital – without reading anything.

I was convinced that it was related with non-verbal spells but Weasley was adamant against it. I didn’t get how I was wrong.


	17. A Very Merry Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's POV  
> Feedback welcomed

I woke up abruptly; it was 2:15 am on Christmas morning. It was incredible, I had finally figured out why firm hand movements were important to transfiguration. I knew Malfoy was probably at the same conclusion, or at least approaching it. I jumped out of bed and searched for my dressing gown. No-where! I realised that I had to learn to be more tidy.

 _Oh well._ I thought, as I hurried out of my dorm and ran into the 6 th year boy’s dorm. I tip-toed over to Al’s bed,

“Al!” I whispered, “AL!”

He turned over, and jolted, “What Rosie? It’s the middle of the night!”

“The cloak! I need the cloak!”

“It’s under my bed,” he replied, sleepily, “now, leave.”

I crawled under the bed and grabbed the cloak.

“thank you!” I whispered and kissed Al on the cheek, he really hates it when I do that.

“I said you can leave.” He whispered, as I snuck out.

Despite being the middle of December, the corridors were surprisingly warm. I suppose they were lit with fire torches.

I arrived at the Ravenclaw tower and watchfully took the cloak off.

“hello?” I whispered to the portrait.

“Merlin! It’s the middle of the night, woman!” the portrait shout/whispered.

“are you going to give me the riddle or what?” I said.

“Ok, ok, what gets wetter the more it dries?”

“a towel. Anyone could get in with that one.” Only when I said that did I realise the irony.

“Well it’s half two in the morning so… just go in!”

I climbed through the portrait hole and was greeted by a roaring fire.

I ran up the boys steps and got to the 6th year dorm. it was very similar to mine, except it was south facing and the beds had blue curtains, not dark red. All of the curtains were shut, but luckily I knew which one was malfoy’s. The one right in the corner. I cast the silencing charm around myself and the bed.

“Malfoy.” I whispered, despite not having to worry about the other people.

Nothing.

“Malfoy.” I said, shaking his shoulders. That was when I saw the bulge in the duvet, near the crotch. I suddenly realised that he was having one of _those_ dreams.

I tried to leave as soon as I saw it, turns out I shouldn’t have shaken his shoulders.

“Merlin, Weasley!” he shouted.

“Sorry about this, but I worked out the transfiguration project!”

“and it couldn’t have waited til morning, because?”

“shut up, so, basically, even though your idea about the relation between non-verbal spells was good, it could’ve worked for charms and defence against the dark arts. But think about it, if you say the incantation but point to the wrong thing it can seriously injure or disfigure the original target. So if your hand is shaky or indesisive, it will cause problems.”

I sighed heavily.

I looked away, but saw that one hand of Malfoy’s was out of the duvet. One wasn’t.

“you’re touching yourself, aren’t you” I asked.

He went red. I took that as a yes.

“I guess showing up in a top that doesn’t leave much to the imagination wasn’t a great idea then.” I said, trying to diffuse the tension, “anyway, this is awkward. I’m gonna leave and try to erase this image from my brain.”

He nodded, stiffly. Pardon the pun.

Just as I turned away, I said,

“oh yeah, I cast the silencing charm, so, uh, go ahead – no-one can hear.”

As I closed the curtains I heard a muffled, “Night, Weasley, merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas Malfoy.” I said back.

I tiptoed out of the Ravenclaw common room. Once I got outside, I kept on saying “ew.” Over and over and over again.

When I got back to my dorm I checked the clock, it was already 3 am.

I couldn’t stop seeing that awful image of Malfoy, er, you know, so I just read. Eventually I couldn’t hold my eyelids open so I turned over and fell asleep.

“ROSIE!” I heard. Lily was jumping on my bed, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

I sat up and gave my little cousin a hug.

“Merry Christmas,” I said, getting up and grabbing my dressing gown. _IT WAS UNDER THE BED_ I realised.

We walked down the stairwell and I was greeted by Flossie, Ruby and Huges.

We all exchanged seasonal greetings but then I realised that someone was missing.

I have just noticed that you are probably wondering where frank is; we kind of grew apart, he is a part of the Gryffindor ‘jocks’, we don’t really talk much. I guess people change.

Anyway, _where was Al?_

“Where’s your brother?” I asked Lily.

“He is just getting up, I told him ages ago though.”

 _Oh god!_ I thought, _Not him as well!_

Just as that thought was racing through my mind, I saw a black-haired, green-eyed boy walk down the stairs.

“Merry Christmas!” he exclaimed.

“Finally!” I replied, “now we can get to the presents?” I asked hopefully.

“Yep!” Ruby replied excitedly.

I gave Huges a broom-polishing kit – he made keeper this year. Dad was very excited.

I got Al a skiving snack-box and a book about magical creatures – his favourite subject.

Ruby received from me a book that Victoire recommended, _top tips for a witch’s good looks._ She loved it!

Flossie’s present was a present to myself as well, I got her a ticket to go see a performance of _The taming of the shrew_ at a muggle theatre in London.

“Oh My God! I love it! Thank you so much!” she practically screamed.

“No problem, I’ve got my own ticket too!” I replied.

I had also gotten Malfoy a WWW gift card, but I hadn’t seen the reaction yet.

I received a lot of books, and sweets and clothes from Victoire and Auntie Fleur.

Of course I got the standard Weasley initial jumper. Mine was always navy blue with a lilac R.

As we got up to go change before the Christmas lunch, Huges pointed something out.

“Hey, what’s that?” he said, indicating to a small, silver, glittery box. He picked it up and read the tag aloud.

“To Weasley. Merry Christmas, from Scorpius.” Al read, and handed the box to me and walked up the stairs to his dorm.

I untied the sparkly ribbon and took the lid off of the box. It was a beautiful, delicate necklace. The pendant was a golden, fluttering snitch. It was truly stunning.

“Merlin, that is exquisite.” Ruby exclaimed.

“I know.” I said, solemn. I walked up the stairs to the dorm.

 _It was too much._ I thought, _it was lovely, but all I got him was a gift card!_

I decided to put that out of my mind for a while and get ready for the Christmas meal I had been dreaming about for months. I couldn’t be arsed to make myself look pretty – a tank top and jeans, and mascara (I always wear it, but I barely ever wear anything else). Before I knew it, my eyes were fixed on the necklace. The golden chain and snitch matched the scarlet top I was wearing perfectly. _How could I say no to a perfect opportunity?_ I picked the necklace up and re-did the clasp around my neck. It looked perfect.

I was so tired; especially after what happened last night. I lied down on my bed, just to shut my eyes for a moment. Only a moment…

“Rosie!” I heard Flossie shouting.

I opened my eyes, sleepily.

“We have three minutes ‘till the feast, let’s go! Quickly!”

I leapt out of bed, “Don’t worry, I’m dressed.” I pulled my slippers on, and we ran.

The staircases were being a pain. Luckily Flossie brings her wand everywhere. I really have to start doing that.

“Imobulus!” she shouted as we came up to the staircase.

Considering that both of us have minimal skill and desire to do sports or excersise, I was pleasantly surprised to get to the hall with 20 seconds to spare.

We crashed into the Gryffindor bench, gasping for breath.

“Merlin! What happened to you?” Ruby half-laughed. She is very sporty; she plays seeker on the quidditch team.

We glared at her.

“One term on the quidditch team as a reserve, 2 years ago! I’m not exactly as fit as Oliver Wood! (He became a famous quidditch player)”

She rolled her eyes and laughed.

The lunch was AMAZING! There was everything; pigs in blankets, turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots and Yorkshire puddings. I had skipped breakfast in preparation for this meal – good call I reckoned!

After an hour of stuffing our faces, Professor McGonagall excused us. I stood up, full to the brim, ready to change into my jogging bottoms and relax before the ball, when no other than Malfoy approached me.

“Listen, erm, sorry about last night- I mean we all do it.” he said, awkwardly.

I thought about it for a second, _I hadn’t._

“No, but-” I nodded.

“Anyway,” Malfoy said, “I see you got your present.” Signalling to my necklace.

“Yeah; it’s beautiful, way too much though!” I replied.

“Forget about it, I saw it in a window in Diagon alley the day after your party and I knew from the moment I saw it that it was for you.”

“Thanks, it’s nice to know that I’m constantly on your mind!” I joked.

“You wish!” we laughed.

We got to the staircases,

“I’m gonna go make myself look presentable, see you later.” I waved.

The ball was different to last time- it was a lot more relaxed. This year I hadn’t gone to all the effort to make everything perfect. I looked very pretty, if I say so myself, and it was the first ball that hadn’t ended up in tears.

Lucas and I met at the grand entrance.

“You look amazing!” he said.

“You too.” I replied, halfheartedly, “sorry, I am super tired; I’ll be pleasant though.”

“Good,” he seemed to be distracted and did not get my joke.

We walked into the highly decorated hall, arm in arm. And joined his group of friends. I wasn’t thrilled; I wanted to see and talk to my friends, not discuss complex quidditch plays.

“Sorry, I must be boring you,” Lucas _finally_ said, “Let’s dance.”

It was a slow song so I expected it to be romantic and intimate. I was wrong.

He seemed constantly distracted, only when I saw who was behind me did I realise that I wasn’t the one he wanted to be with. I didn’t mind, I really couldn’t care less. You see, Lucas was an oat and raisin biscuit. I didn’t mind eating oat and raisin cookies, but they weren’t my favourite. Even if it was hot and fresh from the greatest bakery ever, I didn’t like oats. I couldn’t explain why. But I get why others like them and I am very happy when others enjoy them. I could be friends with the biscuit- and definitely enjoy a snog or two with it, but I didn’t want any more of it than I already had.

I pulled away from the awkward hold we had each-other in, “I’ll be back in a moment.” I said, walking towards Malfoy and Eliza.

I smiled at Eliza, who was looking very pretty, “Hi, do you mind if I borrow Scorpius for a second?” I said.

She looked side-tracked too, “Uh huh, sure.”.

I dragged him to the corner of the hall.

“is it just me or do our dates seem a bit preoccupied?” I asked. Malfoy’s eyes darted to the side.

“Yeah,” He sighed, “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

I nodded, “we have to get them back together.”.

We discussed methods for only a minute or two and then we returned to our dates.

“there you are! I was worried you were gonna leave.” He exclaimed.

“listen,” I said, “you clearly want to e here with someone else, and all I ever want is for my mates to be happy.”

“but, Rose, won’t you be lonely?”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll hang out with Malfoy.”

“You sure?” Lucas said.

“sure.”

As he walked away, I beckoned towards Malfoy. Together we watched the 2 of them; there was crying and laughing, and snogging.

Malfoy and I didn’t dance. Not after what happened two years ago.

“Y’know what,” he started, “I’m bored out of my mind, do you want to go back to the Ravenclaw common room and have a game of exploding step or something?”

“Defo- thanks.” I said.

We walked out of the hall and made our way to the Ravenclaw tower.


	18. The argument, the party, and why I should not drink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's PoV  
> Feedback please.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” Weasley screamed.

“To show you how fucking crazy you’re being!” I retorted, after conjuring a mirror, “I don’t get what the big deal is!”

“the big deal is that it was my idea! And you waltzed in to transfiguration on Tuesday, when I was ill, and wrote and presented a paper to miss about it- without the backstory of how _you_ came up with it! It must’ve taken you ages to modify the story of me running to the Ravenclaw common room early on Christmas day!”

I sighed, I knew this was going to last a while.

She carried on, “Or did you just swap it around! So it was _you_ finding _me_ jacking off in the dorm! But of course, the Gryffindor common room doesn’t have a riddle, so you would’ve had to know the password; and boys can’t go into the girls’ dorms, so you must’ve had to invent some magic more powerful than charms Professor McGonagall cast herself!”

“Merlin, Weasley! It wasn’t that bad, all I did was the assignment – miss didn’t ask for an about the author section! It’s not like you were the first person to think of that idea, and you don’t even own it!” I countered.

“a) it’s my intellectual property and b) I came up with the fucking idea before you did!”

“It was just an idea- I’ll tell miss at the next lesson, but, to be honest, you’re being ridiculous, it’s not even like it’s very important!”

Her face turned sour very quickly, “Fuck off, Malfoy.” She said. Each word with a sting. Weasley turned around and marched out of the Ravenclaw portrait hole.

I sunk into a blue armchair with my head in my hands, _why did I tell miss it was my idea_? I just didn’t think that it was that important- I didn’t think Weasley would either. Guess I was wrong.

I’m kind of fed up with her though, all we ever seem to do is fight or truce so to partner up and get the highest grades in the class. And, also, why does she have to bring up the Christmas morning incident in every argument- it’s over, forget about it, Weasley! She is an insufferable know-it-all, who always has to get the last word in.

I never get full-blown mad, well, barely ever. Weasley just made me so mad sometimes.

But anyway, despite the transfiguration debacle the first week was very ok. I spent most of the time planning Al’s birthday party with him and the group; avoiding eye-contact with Weasley of course.

Ravenclaw had a big quidditch match as well, so I had to practice, every day, at 5 o’clock in the fucking morning!!!

Saturday morning (The morning of the match) was cold beyond belief and the Hufflepuff team was looking good. I was pissed. Weasley still hadn’t even looked at me, despite sitting next to me in every lesson, oh yeah, I also got no sleep the night before.

I ended up having to go up to Flossie and beg her to perform the insulating charm on me. She was the best at the subject. I would’ve asked Weasley but… you know.

Flossie eventually came round – I guess she had heard about the transfiguration argument.

The match was very close all the way through, I scored only 2 goals, whereas McCauley scored 6 times and Andrews, she scored 5. At this point, you are probably thinking that we were doing amazingly, we were in some senses, but the Hufflepuff team were also really good. It was about 2 hours into the match when I saw the Hufflepuff seeker dart forward.

“Linnet!” I screamed, thinking he hadn’t seen it. He obviously hadn’t, until the golden sphere flashed in front of his eyes. Linnet shot forward, just ahead of MacMillan (the Hufflepuff seeker). Linnet was within inches of the snitch, he reached out, perhaps too far and toppled over, and fell at least 40 feet. MacMillan stayed focused and grasped the snitch. I was pissed. Ravenclaw had only lost by 70 points, so we were still in the running for first in the quidditch cup- that is if Hufflepuff lost their other matches and we won all of our others by at least 30 points.

I trudged off the field into the changing rooms, passing Weasley who was discussing how well Hufflepuff played – especially loud when I was in earshot.

I couldn’t face anyone, so I went to the library and read until dinner.

I plodded down the hallway – if you hadn’t guessed, I am extremely competitive.

I sat down with Cam on the Ravenclaw table, still a bit miserable. I ate my dinner in silence until we were allowed to get up. As I was walking out, I bumped in to Al.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you at all today,” Al said, “so the Gryffindor Common room at 9, the password is mimbolus mimboltonia.”

“Wait, what?” I was really confused.

“Come on, mate, we’ve been planning it all week. My party!”

“oh, yeah,” I sighed, “listen, I might skip this one, I’m in a foul mood, and your psychopathic cousin still hates me.”

“Come on!” He begged, “That’s what alcohol is for, stopping peoples’ foul moods, and, not to mention, how much would you like to see Rose off her tits drunk.” Al smirked, I smiled and rolled my eyes.

“I suppose I’ll have to go then… I’ll come at nine thirty-ish, give me some catch up on my sleep-cycle.” I replied.

I couldn’t forget about the mental image of Weasley absolutely sloshed. It was hilarious. Nevertheless, I still got 2 hours of sleep and was able to have a shower in the prefects’ bathroom.

As it reached nine forty-five, I realised that Al would probably be waiting, or doubting that I would come, so I had to drag myself away from my book and go to the Gryffindor common room. Ugh.

“Mimbolus Mimboltonia” I articulated.

The portrait swung open and I climbed through it.

“Scor!” Al exclaimed.

“Hi,” I replied, “Happy birthday”

“Thanks.” He chuckled, “Cam and Flossie and Ruby are over there and there are the drinks and food.” As he pointed to the drinks, I smiled.

I knew that alcohol wasn’t the best way to fix your problems, but what could’ve gone wrong?

An hour or two in to the party, I walked over to the table in the corner, only to be greeted by Weasley in a really hot outfit (but it’s Weasley, so it doesn’t count).

“Malfoy.” She snarled.

I sighed, “Listen, I am really sorry about what I did, I told the professor that it was your idea; can we just forget about this?”

She contemplated it for a moment, “hmm, maybe? I’ll need a few drinks in me beforehand though?”

“Good enough. Now, tequila or vodka?” I asked holding up the two bottles.

“I dunno,” Weasley said, looking at the table, “is there lime and salt?”

“Yes, and yes. Tequila it is then!” I said pouring two shots.

“one… two… three… drink!” we both downed the drink.

“Another?” I asked.

“Sure.” She replied.

We repeated that process a couple more times.

By twelve thirty most people were gone, snogging or (like me and Weasley) off our faces drunk.

I don’t remember much from that point onwards, except Weasley and I leaving the common room, going into the room of requirement, taking each other’s clothes off, taking a sip of liquid luck each and that’s where the memory ends.


	19. Why I should drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV  
> Please feedBack!

I woke up suddenly, his arm was draped over me. I thought that this was a bad dream, until I realised neither Scorpius or I were wearing clothes. Oh shit, we had had sex. I attempted to move his arm without waking him, I thought I was successful. Until I stood on his belt buckle.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed, in pain.

Scorpius sat up sleepily, “where are we?” he asked.

“The room of requirement.” I replied, turning around, “now, do you have any idea where my clothes are?”

“Uh, you, well I, took them off over there.” He pointed at the corner of the bed. They were there.

I pulled my knickers up and put on my bra, I then put on my crop top and pulled up my jeans.

“I’m gonna go; no-one can know about this.” I said.

“Rose, wait.” He said, “can we talk for a moment?”

He never called me my actual name, only ever Weasley, or the occasional Rosie. That’s why I nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed, Scorpius leaned forward, but I backed away.

“Don’t worry Rosie,” he said, reassuringly, “I just want to know what we are.”

“I don’t know, half the time we are at each other’s throats and the other half of the time, we are dancing or laughing or…” I trailed off.

He swallowed, “what are we going to do?”

“well, no-one can know; our fathers would kill us. And also, since this was just physical attraction-”

He cut me off, “Bullshit Rose!”

Scorpius seemed angry, but solemn at the same time.

“It’s not just physical attraction for me. Well, I mean, it was, you are pretty but I think I’ve liked you since…” he started.

“since the yule ball 2 years ago, when you kissed me.” I cut him off, “you knew when we weren’t talking, that I was more than just your friend. But you didn’t want to ruin things, so, well, you just hid it.” I was tearing up at that point.

“It was you I smelt in the amortentia.” He whispered, “Why don’t we have a go at it?”. I avoided his eye contact for a moment, and thought about it. _What would people say? Was it worth it? Amortentia smells of your true desires._

“no-one has to know anything.” He carried on.

I looked up, and nodded. And smiled, sadly.

“No. Not us, it can’t be us. There is too much history.”

“Just think about it.”

Scorpius’ eyes widened, “shit! What’s the time?”

“oh, crap,” I said, looking for the clock, I sighed “It’s only 5 am. But we should go before people notice we’re gone.”

“okay,” he sighed.

“I should probably go before you, just so as not to draw too much attention.” I said, “bye Scorpius.”

I walked out of the room swiftly. I was so confused, _what was I to do?_

Suddenly, my head started to throb and I felt dizzy. I take it that the Felix felicis had worn off.

Once I had gotten to the common room, I felt a pang of nausea and I ran to the toilets. I had gotten there just in time to expel my stomach’s contents via my mouth (the verbs to vomit and to throw-up bum me out.).

I stumbled back to my dorm, carrying a bin – I could sense that this hangover was not one that was going to come and go quickly. I changed into some pyjamas and clambered into bed. I was so tired, but the whole situation that I was in was bugging me. I couldn’t lie, I really liked him, but what would everyone say. I know no-one needed to know about it but it all seemed too weird and unlike us to lie.

It turned out the circumstances weren’t too bad, because I got to sleep fairly quickly. But it didn’t last long.

At roughly nine o’clock Flossie pulled open the curtains, letting the bright morning light fill the room. My head felt like there were a million fireworks were going off inside it.

“What the fuck, Floss!” I said angrily.

She laughed, “I forgot about the 8 shots of tequila you and Scorpius had. Each!”

“Can you stop with that shrilly voice of yours! I feel as if someone’s punching the inside of my head, and as if I’m going to vomit – again! So can you shut up, stop being so perky and self-centred and let me sleep!” I yelled back.

Flossie turned around and glared at me, “Listen,” she turned sour, “just because you had a lousy week, just because you had eight shots, and just because you came back at 5 in the morning, it doesn’t mean you can take out your anger on me. Now go fuck yourself.”

She stormed out; I felt bad, instantly.

“Flossie,” I called out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!”.

“Don’t worry, me and my ‘shrilly’ voice are leaving.” She called back.

I stood up to go after her, but as soon as I was vertical, I retched and had to sit back down.

I couldn’t think straight; not being able to sit up was a problem. I can’t believe I had been so rude; why did I do that?

The rest of the day was very quiet. I stayed in bed till three in the afternoon, and then I only ventured out to the common room.

Ruby bounced in, she had been drinking too (less than me) but she looked fine. I guess I need to learn to handle my booze.

“What happened between you and Floss? She’s really pissed off.” Ruby asked.

“ugh, I feel really bad. Basically, I got very annoyed when she opened the curtains, because I have a very bad headache, hence me not leaving the Gryffindor dorms all day, and I said some things I shouldn’t.” I replied, sounding embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it, Flossie will forgive you. Anyway, I haven’t seen you all day, how’s the hangover?” she laughed.

“Stop!” I moaned, “I’ve been throwing up all day, and I can barely do anything my head hurts so much.”

“Well eight shots are a lot, especially for you!”

“what’s that supposed to mean?” I accused, jokingly.

“Well,” Ruby replied, “You weigh 8 stone, you are 164 centimetres and you do not drink usually.”

“Good point.” We laughed.

“Anyway, you should probably eat something today. Let’s go down to dinner, you can talk to Flossie, she’ll get it.” she said.

“Hmm,” I sighed, “Okay, let me just put some proper clothes on.”

I looked like shit. I was in leggings and a massively oversized jumper with the Ramones on it. I think that logos of good bands were kind of becoming my thing. Sorry, irrelevant.

Anyway, Ruby and I sat down at the Gryffindor table, in front of Flossie.

She wouldn’t look at me,

“Come on Floss, please!” I begged.

“Why?” she said, still looking away.

“Because I’m so sorry, I have never been that hungover and you and Ruby of all people know that I can be slightly bipolar-ish sometimes!” I pled, “I didn’t mean any of it!”

Flossie turned towards me, “Okay,” she said, “but don’t drink so much next time!”

We all laughed.

I thought that eating would make me feel worse, it didn’t actually, I guess that I was just hungry.

Cam and Malfoy waltzed over to us just as we were leaving the great hall,

“Hey,” Cam said, kissing Ruby.

“hi,” she replied, smiling. quickly turning to Malfoy, “Scor, I was meaning to ask you, how much did you write for the history of magic essay?”

As soon as she said that I sighed, I hated history of magic, it was all about my parents and my family, I was so glad that I got to drop it.

“I did 2 feet of parchment, not too much.” Malfoy replied.

“Okay, thanks. I think we better go, someone’s gotta hangover!” She joked, I glared, Malfoy laughed.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing; I heard you swearing and retching in the bathroom at 6 in the morning for at least 10 minutes!” Cam replied to Malfoy, “Who was that girl you were with last night anyway?”.

Malfoy’s pale cheeks turned bright red, he looked away, “no-one, not that you need to know.” He muttered.

“I gotta go.” I said quickly, before walking away swiftly.

_I wasn’t just a pointless one-night stand, was I? Why did that bother me so much? And, lastly, was this really something more than just lust?_

I had made up my mind. I was going to be ~~Malfoy’s~~ (I should start saying his real name) Scorpius’s secret girlfriend. I was happy.

Happy enough to fall asleep quickly, and wake up without a headache.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> scorpius's POv

I woke up early on, what seemed to be, an unusually bright Monday morning; I just snarled. I still felt lousy from being rejected by Rosie. I suppose I should’ve reverted back to calling her Weasley, I just couldn’t let her go. I didn’t know why; it was just Weasley after all. I tried to expel these thoughts from crossing my mind, at least long enough to haul myself out of bed and got take a shower.

 _You know what,_ I thought _, why should you pine over Weasley? She’s not interested, and you didn’t even like her until you two had sex, just get the fuck over it!_

I took a deep breath and stepped out of the shower. I got dressed quietly and snuck out of the dorms. I was as quiet as a mouse, but I didn’t really know where to go; the library was closed and the house elves wouldn’t have set up the hall yet. I didn’t really know why I left the tower, after all I could’ve just stayed in the empty common room, I guess I just felt like I needed to be alone, truly alone.

I stood in front of where the room of requirement’s door should’ve been and said quietly, under my breath, “I need the place where I can be me.”

The great black door materialized before my eyes. I smiled, wondering where it would take me.

I pushed the door open and laid my eyes on the masterpiece it had set out for me. It was smaller than when Weasley and I had been in it last, but it was cosier and much warmer. There was a roaring fire, and an armchair, and a wall filled with books. I fell back into the armchair and picked up the book already set out on the table.

Before I knew it, the clock had turned 8 and I was about to miss the owl post, I darted through the corridors and got to the great hall just as the assembly of owls swooped through the open windows. There was no Darth Vader or Ares today. Oh well.

I searched for Cam at the Ravenclaw table but I couldn’t see him, I then saw Al’s untidy black hair in the corner of my eye and, you’d never guess, but there was Cam (and Ruby, and Flossie, and ~~Rosie~~ Weasley).

I sat down next to Flossie,

“Where’ve you been?” Cam demanded.

“Room of requirement,” I said, “had some stuff to think about”. Which was true, because I did, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I was doing the thinking then.

I ate my cereal silently, just listening to the conversation. Nothing much happened, just the usual talk of tests and stuff.

Once I had finished, I got up to leave. I was promptly followed by Weasley.

She caught up with me half way through the corridor and began to talk.

“I’ve been thinking,” she started, “um, well-”.

I cut her off, “let me guess, that we should just stay friends, because it would ruin things, or because of our families, or just because I like you and you don’t fancy me back. Just don’t try and soften the blow.” I said walking away, not looking back. “That’s not true!” she said defiantly. “I love you; you idiot!” she practically screamed.

I spun around just in time to catch her jumping up, wrap her legs around my waist and start kissing me. And, I kissed back.

Just as we heard professor McGonagall dismiss everyone, we pulled apart, so as not to get caught. We did, however, walk hand in hand to transfiguration.

“I love you too, Rosie.” I whispered in her ear, she smiled back at me, her blue eyes twinkling.

* * *

Rosie and I had a pretty solid thing going, I had never been happier. For months, me and her would disapparate once a month to go on a date in the muggle world, far from anyone we knew.

We had that routine down, and even though I loved it, I thought that we could use some spontaneity. When leaving charms one Friday, I dragged her to the side of the corridor.

“Meet me at the grand entrance tonight at 8. Bring a swimming costume, or not.” I said in hushed tones, turning around.

“Scor!” she called after me, everyone turned around, we only ever called each other by the first names in private, “what?”

“you’ll see…” I replied, smirking.

Since it was June, it was just getting dark as I crept out of the Ravenclaw tower. I was really excited.

I arrived at the entrance just moments before Rosie pulled the cloak off.

I jumped, “How long have you been there?” I whispered.

“Long enough.” She giggled, “Anyway, where are we going?”

“hmm,” I said, trying to decide whether to tell her or not, “how would you fancy a bit of swimming in the lake?”

Rosie smirked, “I know we said we’d take it slow, but I’d like that very much.”

We arrived at the lake just as the sun was setting, very romantic timing – if I say so myself.

“So,” I started, “Costumes or-”

“None.” She said with a Malfoy worthy smirk.

“Your choice.” I smirked back.

“But let me go in first.” She said, undoing her tie, unbuttoning her shirt. Merlin, I wanted to touch her so much. I was frantically trying to unbuckle my belt, when she walked over to me, pulling down her tights, and tutted.

“Not yet, my sweet. I like to play with my food before I eat.” She walked away, pulling off her skirt, leaving on only her dark green, lacy underwear. I shivered, not from the cold. Merlin, she was beautiful. She had long, pale legs; a perfectly rounded ass; small, perky breasts and a flat stomach. I could’ve sworn that I whimpered.

“Close your eyes.” Rose demanded.

“Why?” I asked.

“Just close them” she replied, “please, Scor.”

“Okay” I sighed, shutting my eyes.

I don’t know what happened during, but when she called for me to open my eyes, I was holding her bra and pants. I was breathing erratically now, hoping that she’d-

“You coming?” Rose called, jumping into the lake.

I jumped up, and ran down to the lake whilst simultaneously trying to pull my clothes off. After diving into the teal waters, I pulled her close to me and said “You are the best, smartest, most beautiful person I have ever seen, and I love you to the moon and back.”

She smiled, held my face in two hands and started to kiss me.

I won’t divulge the details, but I had never been so happy to be breaking the rules.


	21. Coming home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV

I hauled my trunk on to the train, it was a lot heavier than I remembered it being when I brought it to Hogwarts. Weird. I quickly hurried back, to give Hagrid a massive hug – that’s the worst part of leaving for the summer, I never want him to be all alone.

The 1 minute whistle sounded and I rushed back on to the scarlet engine, bumping into Scorpius just as the wheels began turning. We were just in the corridor and he decided to kiss me! The cheek!

“Malfoy!” I hissed. I barely ever called him Malfoy in private anymore.

“Sorry, I just don’t know how I’m going to cope with you gone all summer…” he moaned, jokingly, in reply.

“I’m getting my apparation licence on the Monday we get back, so if you can last 2 days without me, I’ll not think you’re clingy.” I replied.

He made the face that a sad puppy dog would make when it didn’t get any treats.

I sighed, “Maybe later… if you’re lucky!” I said walking off to try and find the group.

They were way down the other end of the train, in a compartment by themselves. Scor and I sat opposite each other, and joined in the conversation casually, to be honest, I was still surprised that no-one had found out about our secret relationship.

“Who do you think will be the heads?” Al asked.

I just laughed, “Everyone knows that it’ll be Flossie!” I snorted, very unattractively. Scor’s eyes widened.

“Wha-” Floss began, and then stopped, secretly knowing that it would be her.

Ruby shot her a look that seemed to say _seriously_ , “Well, duh. You do every club, you’re good at everything-”

“Rosie’s top of the year though!” Flossie protested.

“Yes, but Rosie lacks empathy and compassion.” Ruby replied. Everybody laughed.

I was about to object, but I knew that I could be blunt and, quite frankly, a bit intimidating at times. I was more prefect material rather than head girl material.

“I think I really meant to ask who you thought would make head boy?” Al stated.

“I dunno,” Cam said, “I’d like to think it would be me, but I don’t have the grades.”

“Same.” Al replied.

It went silent for a moment.

“Wait,” Ruby interjected, “What about Scor?”

I burst out laughing.

“I think it’s the Rose complex again,” Al said, I was confused, “He isn’t the helpful type.”

“Good point.” Said Scorpius, “I really don’t wanna be one anyway. Think of all the work!”

“yes, but you get your own room and common room!” added Cam.

We carried on talking for what seemed like days. I was gonna miss these guys during the summer. Flossie was going to Australia, Ruby to France, Cam to Thailand to see his Grandma. Scor wasn’t going anywhere but I couldn’t have him in my house, alone – dad would kill him before he crossed the threshold. For a ministry worker, dad does not have an accepting attitude to the Malfoys. The Potters however, are less juvenile and even invited Scor over to theirs at Easter a few months ago.

As the trolley rolled past, I dragged Scorpius out with me.

“Find an excuse to leave. And meet me in the toilet in 5 minutes.” I paid for my liquorice wand and went back into the compartment.

Scorpius swiftly followed, but didn’t sit down. “I’m gonna go say bye to the others in my dorm, I’ll be back soon.” He walked out.

After about 2 minutes, I made a phony excuse of needing the toilet, and ran for it.

Scorpius was leaning against the door, smirking.

“In all seriousness,” I said, “we are roughly 7 minutes from Kings cross.”

He cottoned on to what I was saying just when I dragged him into the cramped loo with my arms looped around his neck.

“7 minutes?”

I nodded. “seven is a very important number, I mean, very important.” I said.

He placed his hands on my waist and I wriggled against him. There was barely enough space for one of us to stand up, let alone two.

“I think we can do something with that…” Scorpius smirked. Merlin, I loved him sometimes.

He kissed me, pulling me closer to him. We had 7 minutes to make a summers worth of memories, just in case I don’t get my apparation license.

I’m not gonna lie, the summer was going to be long and boring without Scor.

He moved his arms, one slipping around my narrow shoulders and the other drifting down until his hand was grasping at my arse. As I pressed my back against the wood-panelled wall, I shifted a leg up around him.

_*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*_

“Ah, crap!” Scorpius exclaimed, I quickly covered his mouth with my hand.

“Occupied!” I said back.

“Rosie?” the familiar voice asked, “It’s Lily. Open up!”

“No! Go to the toilet in the other carriage!”

“But I’m bursting!” She moaned.

“LILY!” I screamed back.

She sighed “Fine.” And audibly stomped off.

We burst out laughing.

“That was close!” I whispered whilst pulling my bra strap up, “We’d better get back, they’ll probably be getting suspicious.”

“Yeah, probably. Anyway, I don’t wanna greet my parents with an erection.”

I blushed and giggled.

We left the toilet swiftly yet still careful not to be caught, and returned to the compartment.

“You took ages!” Al exclaimed.

“sorry.” I said – I think I had gotten pretty good at lying since I had gotten together with Scor.

As the Hogwarts Express rolled into platform 9 and ¾, I saw my parents waving. I smiled back, of course I was happy to see them, but I was really gonna miss Scor. Even if it was only for 4 days.

I stepped off the train and ran to my parents. Just as we walked back to the car, Scor caught my eye and mouthed “see you soon.”. I replied with a smile. A smile that said I’ll try extra hard on my exam just for him.


	22. How I survived the summer holidays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malfoy's PoV

The first half of the summer was long. It turned out Rosie’s Family had organised a holiday for 3 weeks, from a floo free beach house, making Rose have to reschedule her apparation exam. I was so bored without her – or any people my age. My mum still had to work because she took a lot of time off at Christmas, and Dad, he just doesn’t like to leave the house that much – not since the war, mum said.

I read most of the time, I preferred Muggle novels because they were so simple yet brilliant. They were so much more plausible; I mean, in a classic love story, 2 main characters would bump into each other after the forgetful damsel forgets her jumper on the train. It is completely plausible when a muggle writes it, because there isn’t a summoning charm. But if I read that in a book written by a witch or wizard, I wouldn’t have been able to stop the voice inside my head from saying “USE THE FUCKING SUMMONING CHARM YOU IGNORANT TWAT!”. But I’m not that anal.

I bet you are wondering why I am reading love stories – in muggle studies we were studying young adult fiction and we had a reading challenge to see who could read the most novels in our group. Let us just say that Rosie and I came up trumps, each with 20 books in a 7-day period. However, I was the unlucky one who came out of the situation with an addiction to cheesy romance stories.

At the end of the year I thought I had emerged out of the addiction victorious. And to some extent I had. Until my girlfriend went away for 3 weeks and I had nothing to do.

Fuck. My. Life.

I also watched a lot more muggle television than I would’ve liked. I just watched a constant string of Sherlock and Doctor who and stand-up comedy. It wasn’t too bad, I just needed to do something. I was going crazy all by myself!

This was my daily routine during the first weeks of July –

Wake up

Read

Eat

Watch tv

Eat

Homework

Go outside – for vitamin d purposes

Eat

Read

Sleep

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

The 26th of July was an amazing day. Rosie had gotten her license and we were finally about to see each other.

I was lucky because mum and dad were going out until late so there was no supervision. *suggestive smirk* Merlin, I couldn’t wait to hold her, to touch her, to talk to her, just to see her red, crazy hair and her sparkling, blue eyes. I loved her so much that it physically hurt. Of course I couldn’t tell her that, I didn’t want to inflate her ego too much!

We spent the whole day out in the garden.

Sex, at first, was not as bad as people had described it, of course, Rosie said it was quite painful but not excruciating as people had explained. Nevertheless, I still went easy on her because I wanted her to have just as much pleasure as I got – and I didn’t want to put her off it!

We lay under a gazebo, sprawled out on a blanket letting the summer breeze wash over us.

“We’ve gotten better at this.” Rose remarked, absentmindedly.

I chuckled and leaned in to kiss her forehead, deciding that as much as I loved her I was too tired to reach her lips. “Definitely.” I replied, “Although I couldn’t remember the first time!”

She sighed, “Thank Merlin! I thought that it was just me!”

“You know what,” I said.

“What?” she replied.

“Despite being significantly better than we were, I think there’s always room to improve.”

She laughed, “Always the perfectionist.” She teased. I loved to see her smile.

I let my gaze travel over her perfectly shaped body, unknowingly stopping at her breasts. Rosie was stunning: her freckled skin; her sparkling, teal eyes and her curly, crazy, red hair. How I stop myself from holding her in public alludes me.

Moving against her, I slipped one of my legs between her thighs and started to plant kisses along her collarbone. She pulled her hands through my hair and arched her back but still tracing the marks she had made on my back with her fingers. I shivered. I got up from kissing her neck and let my lips connect with hers with so much passion that we wouldn’t pull apart, not even for air.

I was in paradise. Until…

“Scorpius!” I heard my mother calling, “We got back early, where are you?”

“Bollocks!” I whispered to Rose, “They weren’t supposed to get back until late!”

She was calm but red-faced, “grab my clothes.” I handed her the sundress and her underwear. Rosie quickly pulled on the clothes and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She stood up to compose herself before she apparated – otherwise she would splinch herself and not be able to see me until the beginning of school.

Just as I heard the crack of apparation, Dad walked through the French doors on to the patio.

“Hey!” I said shakily, wondering how much he saw.


	23. Heads, Diagon Alley and Quidditch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV
> 
> Sorry about this taking so long to be updated, i just didn't really have any clue of what to write. it's over noe and i should update in a few days. I love everyone of you who reads this. I really hope you like it! Please like and review!
> 
> \- Red xx

  
“Fuck!” I exclaimed loudly, lying on my bed, clutching the letter. I just couldn’t believe what I had read.

 _Dear Miss Weasley,_  
 _We are very happy to inform you that you have been chosen this year to be head girl._  
 _You have been chosen because of your many academic achievements and your exemplary record, not to mention the many clubs you have joined and the many events you have helped put on._  
 _Your duties as Head will be organising the prefect's timetables and putting on the balls and other similar events. You will get your own room and a common room and a bathroom that you will share with the head boy._  
 _I look forward to seeing you refreshed and raring to start the new school year on September 1st,_  
 _Sincerely,_  
 _Professor Minerva McGonagall_

I lay on my bed, staring up at the painted sky on my ceiling, gripping the shiny red badge with shimmering, gold lettering on it. I had no idea why I got it. It just didn’t seem quite right that I had gotten it over Flossie – I was probably a million times more hostile than her. I’m not complaining, though. *Evil smirk*

Just as I was about to head downstairs to tell Mum and Dad the news, I heard a tapping at my window. I pushed open the window to let the golden-feathered owl, who I knew to be Ares, in.  
Grimacing, I took the letter with my eyes closed, hoping that it wasn’t saying that Draco had seen us the previous day.

The note inside the envelope had only ten words.

_Guess who’s going to be sleeping with the head boy?_

I cringed; my boyfriend, the romantic. I quickly wrote back something along the lines of _The head girl!_

I fed Ares an Owl treat from Eeylops Owl Emporium and sent her on her way.

Still clutching the letter, I ran into Huges’ room and pulled open the curtains. 

“What the actual fuck, Rose?” he groaned, rolling over.  
I had to laugh, he was just that ridiculous.   
“It’s quarter to one and the book lists have arrived, along with my shiny new Head Girl badge,” I said climbing into bed with him.   
“Yay.” He replied sarcastically, “Now leave.”  
“Not until you get up,” I said, snuggling up closer to him. Huges squirmed. I laughed.

Around the 10-minute mark, he hauled his lazy arse out of bed. I think he thought I was going to get bored and leave. Boy, he does not know me if he thought that.  
Glaring at me, he grumbled something like “Move, I need to shower.”  
I did so, but not without a hug. I live to annoy him – it’s so easy now that he has become the world’s most teenager-ish teenager. He thinks he’s so cool and adult now that he is 6 feet tall. Just because I need a step ladder to give him a kiss on the cheek does not mean he has the authority to think he’s better than me.

I ran downstairs to my parents, shouting.  
“Mum!” I shouted, “Dad!”

I got to the kitchen, still squealing. Mum was doing ministry work (as always, ugh.) and Dad was watching Game of Thrones on his tablet (an ingenious muggle contraption!). I swear, sometimes I think that Dad is more of a child than I am.

“Rose, what’s wrong?” Mum asked. I realised that my squealing could be interpreted as a noise one makes whilst in pain.

“I’m Head Girl!” I replied thrusting the badge towards her, “Look!”

“That’s brilliant darling! I’m so proud!” She stood up and hugged me, “Let’s go to Diagon Alley this weekend to buy school books and maybe a few items for your new room.”

I smiled as wide as I could and ran out of the room, still squealing.

Just as I left, I heard Dad ask Mum what just happened. Wow. I can’t believe he was so absorbed in watching a programme that ended like 5 years ago, let alone something that’s practically porn. I had to stop myself and take a breath after imagining my Dad watching porn.

I opened the door into my room and flopped onto my double bed; that’s the one thing I miss most when going to Hogwarts (aside from my family, of course.). Maybe I’ll get a big bed in my new room; if not, I can transfigure it without having to worry about taking up too much space. I hope the bathroom will be nice too, hopefully, it will have a large shower - if you catch my drift. I am really, really excited.

* * *

“Rosie!” I heard my little brother call up the stairs, “Move! I wanna get the shopping over with!”

“Shit!” I whispered, slapping the naked Malfoy sleeping next to me, “It’s midday!”He sat up quickly, “Fuck, the alarm didn’t go off!”.

He sat up quickly, “Fuck, the alarm didn’t go off!”.

I glared at him, “No shit, Sherlock!”

“Okay, okay,” he replied, “reply so they don’t come up here!”

“Uh,” I stuttered, and then replied to my brother “I can’t believe you’re telling me to hurry up; you hypocritical twat!”

“Language!” my mum shouted.

I rolled my eyes, “Just let me meet you there in 5 minutes! I’ll apparate to Flourish and Blotts.”

“Okay, sweetie!” Dad cut in before Mum or Huges could complain.

Just a few moments later I heard the roaring flames of the Floo network.

“Okay, I think we’re safe. I’ll just get dressed-”

“And I’ll watch,” Scorpius smirked.

I smiled and grabbed a sundress out of my wardrobe, I pulled it over my head and proceeded to go to my bathroom.

“Hey Rose,” I heard Scor call, “I’m gonna apparate home before Mum realises that I’m not at Al’s.”

“Okay! See you on Thursday, speaking of which, do you want me to pick anything up for your room at Diagon Alley?”

“Ugh, I forgot we had to go back to school on Thursday, but I’ve got everything I need. Thanks anyway. Love you!”

“Love you too!” I responded just before I heard the crack of apparation.

I sat in front of my mirror and flicked my wand; I had gotten pretty good at make-up and appearance spells if I say so myself.

Quickly, I grabbed my Gringotts key and a jacket and apparated to the bookstore. Considering I only had a month to practice the sensation, not dissimilar to being squeezed through a pipe, was getting more tolerable. By that, I meant I stopped vomiting afterwards.

With a crack, I arrived outside of Flourish and Blotts just in time to see Mum, Dad and Huges walking towards me.

“Sorry about that! I just had to do my make-up.” I explained.

“No problem sweetheart, we used this opportunity to get some new gloves for the best keeper Hogwarts has seen since 1995!” Dad replied, slapping Huges on the back.

“Do I have to remind you that I played keeper 2 years ago?” I said, glaring at him. Dad could be quite ignorant sometimes.

“Yes, I remember, but didn’t you quit because you were “above quidditch””  
I rolled my eyes. “I fell off of my broom! Don’t you remember the cracked skull! I said that because I didn’t want to admit that I was too scared to play again.” I shouted, “I’m going to Gringotts. I’ll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at 2 for lunch. Bye.”

I stormed off, not looking back at my idiotic father who was inevitably going redder than a tomato.  
Ugh. He could just be so stupid sometimes. I don’t see how mum can tolerate him on a daily basis without Huges and me to be buffers.  
I arrived at Gringotts and handed over my key to the grimacing goblin. I didn’t know if it was me he was snarling at, or if that was just his general expression. This was the first time I had been to Gringotts on my own, so the rollercoaster-like journey to my vault was even more horrible without my mother’s hand to crush, I mean hold.  
The goblin opened up the door to reveal a lot more galleons than I thought I had. I heard him mumble something to do with “wizard superiority” and “a fucking joke”. Oh well. You can’t please everyone.

I stepped inside, shocked at a number of coins there were. I noticed a note sitting on top of the pile of sickles; it read

_Dear Rosie,_   
_You must’ve noticed the extreme increase in your bank account. It is not a fluke. The day you were born I put a large bet on the Chudley Cannons to win a match against the Tutshill Tornadoes and I put it down in your name. Your mother thought I was insane, especially since they hadn’t won a match all season. Let’s just say that the Tornadoes did not show their faces in public again for a fortnight. I decided that it was only right to give this money to you, as it would’ve been fraud._   
_I love you so much, and you make me proud every day._   
_Lots of love,_   
_Dad Xx_

I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe Dad was just kidding about the quidditch thing. Merlin knows I can get a bit defensive.

I grabbed several handfuls of coins and placed them in my mokeskin pouch. I had to make sure that I had enough money to last me until Christmas.

I got out of Gringotts as quickly as possible. It’s very gloomy in there, and not to mention how claustrophobic I get in the dungeon-like part of it.

I couldn’t find Mum and Dad so I decided to get my book list and equipment list out and do my school supply shopping before lunch.

I ended up spending a half of my money on books and potion ingredients. Granted, half the books were not on the list but I needed them. Yes. I did need them.

I checked my brand new, gold watch that I had gotten for my 17th birthday (Weasley tradition); it was 5 minutes to 2. I quickly made my way to the Leaky Cauldron and saw my family walking in. I ran up to my Dad and hugged him tighter than I ever had before.

He looked shocked, “I guess you went to Gringotts then!” 

“Yes, but this is because you said that you're proud of me, even if I don’t play quidditch, not because of the money.”

“Of course, I’m proud of you, Rosie!” he reassured me.

“I know, Dad, it’s just nice to hear it sometimes,” I whispered back.


	24. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and her friends return to hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy, sorry about the long wait! Un petit peu of writers block! Please Review!
> 
> Rose's PoV

“ROSE MINERVA WEASLEY!” Mum screamed, “WE NEED TO LEAVE IN 45 MINUTES, GET YOUR LAZY ARSE DOWN HERE TO EAT YOUR BREAKFAST WITH THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY BEFORE YOU GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND FORGET TO SEND US LETTERS EVEN THOUGH YOU SAY YOU WILL!”  
Merlin, mother! I thought, it was as if I hadn’t gotten up yet.   
“I’m up, Mother! I’m packed and I’m coming down!” I screamed back, after picking up my wand and casting the levitating charm on my trunk. There was no way I was going to haul my case down the stairs when I do not have the threat of being expelled from Hogwarts looming over my head if I used magic when under the age of 17.  
I walked into the hall, focusing on my levitating trunk when I passed my little brother lugging his down the stairs.  
“A little help here?” He asked, but in a voice far to whiny for my liking.  
“No thanks I’m good.” I replied walking past him and smirking. Wasn’t I just the best big sister ever?  
His voice turned to a whisper and said “Fuck off!” as I reached the landing on the third floor.  
“You shouldn’t have done that Hugo.” I replied, smiling. He looked very confused. “MUM!” I shouted, “HUGO SAID THE F WORD!”  
We could hear Mum audibly gasp. Hilarious. “HUGO ALASTOR WEASLEY! WE DO NOT USE LANGUAGE LIKE THAT IN THIS HOUSE! AND IF YOU SAY ANOTHER WORD LIKE THAT I WILL TELL NEVILLE TO BAN YOU FROM HOGSMEADE!”  
Huges was livid.   
“Don’t cross me little bro; I will always come up trumps.” I smirked. Walking out of sight.  
________________________________________  
I took a deep breath and shut my eyes. Even after years of entering platform 9¾, I still had to psych myself up beforehand. I know that I’m a wizard, but I was reading about muggle science and it just doesn’t seem plausible. Nevertheless, I needed to get to school so on the count of 3, I charged at the apparently solid wall.  
As quickly as I was transported for the muggle world to the wizarding one, I saw the platinum blonde hair of my bae – secret bae. He smiled at me and walked over to Cam’s family and started to talk to Cam’s baby sister who was starting Hogwarts this year. She was so cute. Her name is Belle and she has dark, straight, brown hair – just like Cam’s. I was about to go over there and join them when a hand reached out and pulled me into a corner.  
“What the-” I said, confused, “Flossie! How was Australia?”  
“Australia was great, thanks. I just pulled you over here to tell you that there’s going to be a midnight questions and answers with the actors in Sherlock. We need to get tickets!”  
“YES!” I screamed.  
I saw heads turn to look at us with irritated expressions.  
“Now,” I said, “if I wasn’t Head girl I would swear loudly at them.”  
“But you are so you can’t. Even if they’re twats.”  
“oh yeah, no hard feelings about that. I was so confused when I got it over you – I still think you should’ve gotten it.”  
“Don’t worry about it; I’m taking over your prefect position though, so I’m happy that I finally get to use the prefect’s bathroom.” She replied.  
“Good.” I sighed, “Anyway, I think we should get back to our families, the train’s leaving in 5.”  
“Ok, I’ll see you on the train.”  
I walked back to my family and the Potters. We were the last people in the Weasley/Potter clan to be going to Hogwarts. Sad times. Anyway, I hugged my parents and Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, levitated my trunk into the compartment and walked away.  
It has gotten much easier to leave now. Mainly because, despite leaving my parents, I was always surrounded by my family. But this year was going to be different; it’s only me, my brother and the 2 youngest Potters. Nonetheless, this was my last year at Hogwarts and it was going to be my best yet.  
I stepped on to the train just as the minute-whistle sounded. I looked back at my family and gave them a wave and ventured into the carriage. I opened the compartment door to get an excited Ruby running towards me and engulf me in a rib-cracking hug.  
“I missed you too!” I replied, “how was France?”  
“France was great! Really warm too.”  
“Good,” I turned to Scor, “Malfoy, we need to go to the Heads carriage to meet Professor Longbottom. We’ll be back soon though.”  
“Okay” he replied, standing up and ushering me out of the compartment.  
Once we got a good ten feet from the compartment, I stopped, cupped his face in my hands and gave him a (quick) kiss.  
“I missed you” I whispered.  
He smirked, “I missed you too.”  
We carried on walking but this time with his arm on my shoulder. This year was going to be good and I knew it.   
________________________________________  
The sorting was good; Belle was in Gryffindor (The best house!). Cam was a bit disappointed that his sister wouldn’t take on his Ravenclaw reign, but, I mean, she’s a Gryffindor now so… I win. Just kidding.  
The thing I was most excited about was, obviously, seeing my new dorm and common room and bathroom.  
Scor and I only were held back to talk to Professor McGonagall about timetables and stuff. To be honest I was pretty glad that there wasn’t going to be a yule ball this year (as it was biannual) because I do not want the type of stress that comes with planning it.   
As soon as we entered our dorm the only word that could escape our mouths was “Wow.”  
It was smaller than the Gryffindor common room but in no way less lovely. There were two two-seater sofas, a big bookcase with hundreds of leather-bound books, a coffee table and a roaring fire. Since we weren’t both in the same house, the colours were mixed of gold, bronze, blue and scarlet.  
We walked up the steps to the bedrooms, mine was to the right and Scor’s was to the left and then the toilet was up another flight of stairs.  
I went into my room first and was pleasantly surprised by the double bed in the corner of my room. On the adjacent wall there was a desk and a wardrobe and on the wall opposite there was a piano. As I have said, I love music and I had been playing since I was 6, but going to Hogwarts had taken its toll. I was so happy to see it that it was there that I started to play.  
About five minutes later I heard the creaking of an opening door and I saw a flash of platinum blonde hair in the corner of my eye. I stopped playing immediately.  
“Don’t stop on account of me, please, keep playing.” He said, lying on my bed.  
“Nah, I’m good, thanks.” I replied, “Anyway, how did you get in here? It’s a girl’s room, remember?”  
“I don’t know, I just walked in. Maybe it’s in case of an emergency…”  
“Yeah, probably… Well, it’s getting late so I’m gonna have a shower.”  
“What would you say to not showering alone?” he smirked.  
“I wouldn’t be disgusted…” I teased.  
He pulled me closer and started to kiss me.  
“just checking, you are consenting, right?” he whispered.  
He was perfect.  
“Yes.” I replied, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the staircase into the bathroom.


	25. How to stop people thinking things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius and Rose have a plan to throw their friends off the scent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV
> 
> Heyy guys! Sorry this took so long. Please like and review!

I rolled over in my new bed and looked at the most beautiful person I knew: her red hair was perfectly crazy, her skin was tanned from the summer and, most important, she looked peaceful and happy. I looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. We still had at least another half hour of sleep.

Rosie began to stir, I slipped my arm around her and she snuggled into me. My eyelids grew heavy and I fell asleep.

_Beep Beep Beep_

I awoke at the sound of my alarm clock. Ugh. I quickly realised that Rose wasn’t beside me, I stood up quickly and checked outside in the hallway.

“Rose!” I called.

“I’m in here!” She replied.

I walked into her room. It was like Al’s dorm room but airier.

“How have you only just gotten up? Breakfast starts in half an hour!” She screeched.

“Relax; we have half an hour!” I replied, trying not to laugh at her need to be early for _everything,_ “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and walked out. I knew was secretly looking at my arse.

Showering and dressing only took 10 minutes, how on earth she thought I’d miss breakfast alludes me. I strode into the common room and was greeted by all of our friends.

“Snazzy place!” Exclaims Ruby.

“I know, right?” Flossie said.

“Yeah,” I replied, yawning, “It’s nice.”

“Seems like someone isn’t a morning person…” Al piped up in a sing-songy voice.

I was too tired to reply with words. I stuck my middle finger up at him.

“To be honest,” Cam said, slumping on the armchair, “this isn’t half as bad as he is in the winter.” He started to laugh and I pushed him off the armchair. I smirked and sat down, smugly.

Rosie walked down the stairs into the common room, trying to fix her earring. I think I was staring she gave me that sort of _Do you want everyone to find out about us?!_ Look. I quickly looked down at my feet and checked to see if I had all of my books in my bag.

“We should go to breakfast; we don’t want to miss the good stuff.” Ruby said walking over to the portrait. We all followed.

Our first lesson was potions so, as always, we had to choose partners. As you may have guessed it was Cam and Ruby (because they are just couple goals); Al and Floss (because they have the best bromance – I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the maid of honour at her wedding) and, of course, Rose and I (because we are always the ones that are left over).

“Sup Malfoy?” She said, sitting down on the bench next to me.

“Not much, Weasley. What ‘bout you?” I replied

“So, basically, you know that girl that Al likes? Thea?” I nodded, “When we were on the Hogwarts she walked past our compartment ant she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked in. you see?”

“What? She could’ve been looking at me or Cam.” I responded, still confused.

“Oh Merlin! Cam and Ruby were ‘making out’ in the toilets at that moment and I had my legs resting on you and everyone knows that key for ‘back-off bitch!’” She said in a hushed voice.

I chuckled at the thought of this; how could one person know whether a person likes another based on the actions their actions despite being in a group of people.

“So,” she carried on, “I noticed that people are starting to get a little suspicious of us. I’m thinking that we should set Al and Thea up to throw them off the scent.”

“Ok, are you a hundred percent sure that it will work? Just because I don’t wanna see Al get hurt as a result of our secrets.” I asked.

“Trust me, I know girls. And anyway, Thea asked me to talk to him for her.”

I looked at her with deadpan eyes, “you could not have lead with that, could you?”

Rosie elbowed me in the ribs and I let out a yelp of pain, only to be given a don’t-fuck-with-me look by Professor Webster (the new teacher).

“Ok,” I said in a whisper, “how are we going to do this?”

Since it was only the first lesson, we only did theory. And during that time, Rose and I came up with the perfect plan

The plan only took a day to construct and to play out. It really wasn’t that complex.

The morning after ‘the plan’ took place Al and Thea walked into the great hall hand in hand.

* * *

Thea was a 7th year Hufflepuff who had long, wavy blond hair. She was very pretty and very kind. A true Hufflepuff.

I shot Scorpius a look that said “We are FUCKING geniuses!”.

The following weeks after that were amazing. For Al that is. Flossie and Ruby didn’t like all of the attention that Thea was getting and she would constantly turn up at the Room of requirement when we were just about to get stoned. I know what you’re thinking; the heads, smoking weed?! Yes. It just stops me stressing and it’s only like we do it once or twice a month.   
To be honest I see it too; Thea doesn’t have a sarcastic bone in her body and, well, we can get pretty cynical at times.

I also thinking that it’s messing with Flossie; Al and her barely talk anymore. It’s like they went from being joined at the hip to merely being acquaintances. I could tell that Rosie didn’t like it, and that she felt guilty for splitting up the group. It was not her fault. How could we have known that such a nice girl would be so interfering? Anyway, at least no one is focussing on us.


	26. Never have i ever smiled at a mate's bad news

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Al has some news. and flossie isn't sad about it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review!
> 
> Flossie's PoV

I was late as it was; my next lesson was history of magic and I was only just leaving the Gryffindor tower. Al came up to me all mopey and even though he had been ignoring me for the last 2 weeks I felt that I needed to find out what was wrong. Damn my Hufflepuff tendencies!

“Al, are you ok?” I asked curiously.

“I’m fine, Floss. Go to history of magic – you only have two minutes.” He replied, looking at the floor.

I sighed. He may be going out with a first-rate goody two shoes but he was still one of my best mates.

“No.” I said, “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Thea broke up with me. I think it was because of the cruel Gryffindor win in quidditch. It’s just petty. She seemed so nice and quiet.” Al looked solemn. I could feel the urge to laugh and smile and cry out with happiness rising in my chest. Before I humiliated Al any more than he already was, I realised I had to get to class.

“I got to go, talk later, okay?” I said, hurriedly.

I ran out of the common room faster than a snitch zooming out of the sight of the seeker.

Everyone was in class or in their common rooms so I was the only one in the corridor. I could hear my footsteps echoing off of the many arches in the gallery. Thea was going to be in History of magic; I smirked.

 _You have to stop smiling!_ I told myself.

 _But at least you have him back to yourself._ The bitch part of my brain said.

 _You aren’t going out with him, it’s not fair._ I reasoned

 _That’s not what I meant. He’s practically my brother._ The bitch part replied.

At that point I had arrived at the classroom.

“Sorry… Professor…” I wheezed, “I… over… slept…”

“Well, yes” Professor Binns replied, “take a seat Miss Boot.”

I took my seat next to Scor at the back of the room.

“Why are you smiling?” he whispered.

“I’m not!” I whispered defiantly, “am I?”

“Yes. Now, I can infer from the look you gave Thea when you walked in that it has something to do with Al. It must’ve been important otherwise you would have just waved it off and gotten here on time. Thea has been moody all morning and she couldn’t even look at the Gryffindor quidditch win celebrations at breakfast. So, I’d say that Thea broke up with Al because she’s petty. Am I right?”

I sat there for a minute staring into his grey eyes. I get why Rosie gets so annoyed by him.

“How the fuck did you do that?” I whispered, amazed.

He smirked that annoying smirk. “Sherlock. I watch way too much Sherlock.”

I smiled. I loved Sherlock. “Wait,” I said, “Sherlolly or Johnlock?”.

“Sherlolly ‘til I die. Who do you think I am? Some sort of Satanist?” he laughed.

 I tried to keep him talking throughout this lesson because it was about the death eaters during the war. It was really quite horrible to see him suffering like that. That sounds flirty. It was not. It was, and will always be, purely platonic. It’s so obvious that Rosie and Scor love each other, even if they won’t admit it, and I would never do anything with him. And anyway, blondes are not my thing. My type is dark hair, nice eyes and a decent height (not too tall but above average). Wait, I just described Al. He is _NOT_ my type. He is so far from my type that he couldn’t turn around and see my type through a telescope.

Ugh. Stop it Flossie.

My birthday soon followed. I don’t really like many people (neither do Scor, Rosie and Cam) so we’ve had this tradition where we (the group) go to the room of requirement and just talk about everything and nothing. Most of the time alcohol is involved, but for the last 3 we managed to get hold of pot. I’m not going to make up some pathetic euphemism. Pot.

This year was gonna be awesome.

Ruby, Al, Cam and I got to the room around 9:30 ish (Rose and Scor had rounds later than usual because it was a Friday).

“the room of requirement never ceases to amaze me” said Cam

“I know right.” Ruby replied.

This time the room had conjured up a small coffee table, two small sofas and a couple of large cushions on the floor.

Al smirked “I take it that the head boy and head girl will be sitting on the floor.”

“Yeah.” I replied.

At that point, Scor and Rosie burst through the door, panting.

“Sorry…” she gasped.

“Rounds… took… ages…” Scor carried on.

“And… Flitwick… was… on… our… case.” Rosie finished.

I got 2 cups out of the bag and said “Aguamenti”. Crystal clear water filled the cups.

“Thank you.” they said in perfect unison. They walked over to the centre of the room and sat down on the cushions.

“So,” Ruby said, “we have firewhiskey and weed. How about a game of never have I ever?”

“Why not?” Al replied. Everyone looked fine with it.

“Who’s starting?” Cam asked.

“It’s my birthday, I will.” I replied, “Never have I ever walked in on my parents, uh, you know, doing _it_.”

Rosie and Al both drank.

“ew! How old were you?” Ruby exclaimed.

Rosie held up 10 fingers. Al replied “15” and shuddered.

“Cam, It’s your turn now.” I said.

“Never have I ever had a sex dream about someone in this room’s older brother.”

Ruby picked up her cup and hissed “I hate you” at her boyfriend.

“come on,” Rosie said, “you have to tell us now!”

“ok,” she sighed, “Al, I am so sorry-”

 “James” he whispered, disgustedly.

“well, since he got that job as the reserve seeker in the wimbourne Wasps, he has been on the news a lot and, well, you can’t say that your older brother isn’t hot!”

“Yes, I can. And Rosie. Why aren’t you more disgusted at the thought of this? He’s _your_ family too!”

“eh,” she replied, “I can’t lie, he _is_ hot.”

Al shivered at that.

“My turn!” Ruby said, “Never have I ever flashed someone.”

“You LIAR!” Rosie laughed, “I was with you! I did it too!”

They both took a drink.

“Well,” Ruby started, “Last easter, Rosie and I got tickets to a concert and we got really drunk and, well, lifted our tops up and flashed the entire O2 stadium.”

“Weasley also flashed my owl back in 4th year.” Scorpius piped up.

“Oh yeah, we heard about that!” I laughed, “Scor, it’s your turn.”

“ok. Never have I ever skipped school.”

Al, Ruby, Cam and Rose drank.

“seriously!” I said, “How are we the only ones?”

“I dunno, I only skip when we have potions on a really nice day.”

“I can’t be arsed to explain.” Said Rosie, “Never have I ever masterbated whilst talking to someone…”

“fuck off!” Scor hissed, “It was Christmas day last year and Weasley broke into the Ravenclaw common room and well, she saw me and continued to talk about a transfiguration project.”

Rosie smirked.

“Finally, it’s my turn. Never have I ever had sex.”

Rosie spluttered. “What?” she started to laugh.

Al looked at her and stormed out.

I glared at her, “you can be a right wanker sometimes!”. I quickly followed Al out. Was it bad that I was secretly happy that he was a virgin?


	27. I'm sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose has to make things right

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Al's PoV - Please R&R

I was so pissed. Rosie can be a right twat sometimes. Yes, I was a virgin but why did she have to laugh? To be honest, I didn’t even think that she had had sex. I thought she would’ve told me. Maybe it was implied when she went out with Lucas.

UGH. Why was I thinking about _her_? She needed to use her brain before she spoke. I could feel the rage rising in my throat. It wasn’t my fault that I had more sense than shagging in a broom closet with someone I had only properly known for a week.

At that point, I heard Flossie’s voice calling out for me.

“Al, where are you?” she sounded worried.

“Floss, I’m fine. Get back to your party.” I replied, trying to tone down the anger.

“I’m good thanks. I don’t fancy talking to Rose at the moment either. How about we just stay here? Just for a while.”

“sure.” I replied.

We sat down, our backs leaning against the wall. No one talked for about 5 minutes.

“It’s true.” I said, trying to cut the tension.

“I knew you wouldn’t lie.” She replied.

It stayed silent for a second afterwards.

“Have you had sex?” I asked.

“What?” she replied.

“You heard me. Have you had sex?”

“Yeah.”

“Do I know him?” I asked.

“Yeah. Aiden Zambini. He’s in Slytherin. It was early in September after a party. All a bit fast really. I hadn’t done it since then; I wanted to do it with someone who actually meant something to me. I’m so sorry Al!”

“yeah, okay. I might go to bed now.” I said, glumly, turning away.

“Al, please don’t be like that! It’s good that you’re waiting; I wish that I had! Now all we do is share awkward glances in class and avoid each other in the library and hallways. So, yeah, it’s all my fault! Everyone tells me that and I thought that maybe you’d be different, especially since you’re my best friend. But-”

I stared at her. “How many people did you tell before you told me?” I whispered.

“Al…” she said, her voice shaking, “I should’ve told you and you have to trust me that I honestly thought you wouldn’t care because you were with Thea. You are my best-”

My blood was boiling, “Stop calling me your ‘best friend’! If I was your best friend, I would’ve known before _everybody else_ , regardless of who I was with. And I know you hated Thea but you stopped talking me because of it! Best friends don’t do that!” I was shouting at that point.

Tears were filling her eyes. Her _beautiful, hazel_ eyes.

“Stop it Al!” she whimpered, “You know she hated me just as much as I hated her. And you _are_ my best friend! For fuck’s sake, Al; I love you!”

“if you loved me you would have told me.” I hissed in reply. I quickly turned back to the steps up to the Gryffindor tower.

**_ Rose’s PoV _ **

It had been a while since Floss had followed Al out and I was starting to feel guilty. I know what I did was wrong, but I just couldn’t believe it. James was the definition of a man whore until the whole pregnancy debacle. And Lily got her fair share of guys. It just didn’t seem plausible.

I didn’t mean to laugh either – it just slipped out.

“I need to say sorry.” I said, standing up.

“Weasley, wait a while.” Scor said.

“No. I’m going out there whether you like it or not.”

I walked over to the big, black, ornate door and exited into the corridor.

The first thing I saw was Flossie slumped on the floor with her back leaning on the wall, crying.

“Flossie.” I gasped, “What’s wrong?”

Her eyes narrowed at me. “You are.” She whispered, “Al found out about Zambini and now he won’t even look at me. If you didn’t laugh, I wouldn’t be here and everyone would still be in the room playing drinking games.”

“Flossie, I’m so sorry!” I said.

“No, no you’re not! You need to think before you speak or laugh. You never think of the negative ramifications! You just hurt your own cousin and you’re here ‘apologising’ to me! Fix it, Rosie!” she was shouting. I went to slump down beside her but she got up and turned towards the room of requirement, “Fix it, Rosie.” She said, monotone.

I hurried up the staircase. I really didn’t know what I was thinking when I laughed. Maybe it was just because of James’ reputation.

I reached the Gryffindor common room. _Ah, crap._  I thought. I couldn’t remember the password for the life of me. All I could remember that it was something to do with herbology. Err… Something leaves. That narrowed down the search – a plant with leaves.

MANDRAKES!

“mandrake leaves.” I said to the fat lady. The portrait swung open to reveal an empty common room.

I turned to the staircase to the boys’ dorm. I saw Al’s bed right in the corner and I cast the silencing charm around it.

“Al.” I whispered.

He rolled over and sat up. “What do you want?” he snarled.

“I am _so_ sorry. I know I shouldn’t have laughed it’s just that you and James look so similar-”

“Fuck off! I know I look like James but I am _nothing_ like him. I don’t sleep around with anything with a vagina, I also don’t get a girl pregnant, get rid of the baby and then leave her because I couldn’t deal with my own conscience!”

“A-a-Albus” I stuttered.

“No. I look like James but I don’t want to be seen as a younger version of him.”

“Merlin, I’m trying to say sorry because I honestly am. Can you think about it and talk to me tomorrow?” I asked irritably, “Love you Al.” I said as I walked out, muttering under my breath.

I returned to the head’s dorm, looking at Scorpius with puppy dog eyes.

“I didn’t mean it.” I whispered with my voice shaking, “please believe me…”

Scor sat up in the chair and sighed “I know baby.”

I snuggled up to him and gave my perfect boyfriend a sad smile.

“I love you.” I whispered.

“I love you too.” He replied pushing my hair out of my eyes.


	28. What is the point of Wormwood essence?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scorpius helps sort things out; flossie has some thinking to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starts off Scorpius's PoV

I knew Rosie was sorry and had tried to fix it but Al still was one of my best friends. So I thought maybe I should go and comfort him.

I ran up to him as he was walking to the great hall.

“Hey.” I said, maybe a bit too chirpily.

“hmm” he grumbled in reply.

“What happened? Ros- Weasley told me some of it already.” Good save.

“She was twat, she laughed and she compared me to James so… whatever she’s feeling, just remember that she deserves it.”

I narrowed my eyes, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“What?” he smirked.

“This isn’t you, mate. Whatever it is snap out of it because she tried to apologise and now she’s crying, and it’s your fault.”

Al grimaced, “no.” he muttered under his breath, “I am fed up of apologising to people who don’t deserve it! Mum and Dad always thought it was me who made Lily cry when it was James. I always end up apologising for my cousins and my siblings when I never do anything wrong. Just stop, Scor! Let me sulk!”

He disappeared into the great hall as I rolled my eyes. Ugh. The sad thing is that Al had a point. A valid one at that.

I entered the great hall. At first I was gonna move towards Rosie at the Ravenclaw table with Cam, then I caught a glimpse of Al’s unruly, black hair. I knew he was hurting so I couldn’t just let him sit alone.

“Hey mate,” I said, sitting down next to him, “I’m sorry about earlier.”

“No, you’re not.” He muttered, “You’re just saying that.”

I sighed, it was sometimes quite obvious that he was part Weasley whan he was being stubborn.

“Listen, you are miserable and so are Floss and Ro-Weasley” I really needed to stop doing that, “she has tried to fix it but you aren’t giving her any flexibility. I’m here because I don’t want any of my friends being sad and, to be honest, both of their happiness is riding on you getting down from your high horse and realising that neither of them would ever mean to hurt you.” I took a deep breath.

Al looked as though he had been punched in the face.

“Are they really that sad?” he practically whispered.

“uh-huh.” I replied.

“I was just mad.”

“I know, mate.”

“I should probably go over there” he propositioned.

“yeah, I think so.” I said.

We got up and Al shuffled towards the Ravenclaw table.

I stood a few paces behind him.

“look,” he started, “I’m sorry for not forgiving you Rosie, it’s just that it hurt that you thought I would be like James.”

Rosie looked up from her cereal and said, “It’s okay, I shouldn’t have laughed in the first place.” They both exchanged sad smiles.

“Now,” he continued, “Flossie, I am so sorry for being rude to you. Of course you’re allowed to have had sex but I was just hurting because you didn’t tell me. I’m also sorry for expecting you to tell me. I know you’re not proud of it.”

Flossie’s eyes remained fixed of her toast. She mumbled something along the lines of “It’s okay.”

Al looked slightly put out but continued to sit down next to Ruby.

I couldn’t tell what Flossie was thinking but I don’t think it was very complementary.

**_ Flossie’s PoV _ **

Yes, I was pissed. No, I wasn’t being harsh on him. Yes, he did deserve it. And no, I am not being a bitch. Well…maybe.

What makes him think that one measly apology will make everything okay again?

Ugh.

I looked at him, his beautiful green eyes were shining. ‘No Florence’ I thought to myself, ‘He is and always will be your friend. And _nothing_ else.’

Al gave me a small smile. I pursed my lips in return. He turned to look away.

I felt bad for being so hostile towards him but I couldn’t help it. I called for him after he left and I cried that night. He shouldn’t have that type of hold over me. No one should.

Then again, he is my best friend. I needed to fix this. Like, desperately.

I got up and, since it was a Saturday before an exam, I went up to the library to study.

The library was empty apart from me and someone at the back hidden behind a stack of books. Because of the lack of people Madam Pince (the librarian) decided to have a day off, leaving me in charge.

Potions pisses me off. That week we were going to have a practical exam. And since potions is my worst subject I was stress reading. (Fast reading where I register nothing.)

_Wormwood essence is invaluable in many potions such as the sneezing concoction; hilarity boosting solvent and, most famously…BLAH…BLAH…BLAH._

“Why the fuck would I need to know how to use essence of wormwood if I’m going to be a journalist?” I muttered a bit too loudly considering that I was in a library, even though it had less people in it than in the golden trio.

“You’re gonna be a bloody good journalist though.” A familiar voice said from behind the stack of books.

“Aiden?” I asked.

“Yes” he replied stepping out from his corner, “I haven’t seen you in a while. You okay?” He moved a step closer to me.

“I’m good.” I said, shakily, moving a step towards him.

“Good.” Aiden replied, taking another step.

I didn’t know what I was thinking but potions revision was screwing up my head and for some reason I took another step towards him. At this point we were just inches apart.

“I missed you, Flossie.” He whispered.

“I-uh-I” I stuttered, “I-”

I was interrupted by his lips crashing against mine.

It was different to the last time. Maybe because we weren’t drunk, but I don’t think that that was it.

I pulled away.

“Aiden, I’m sorry.” I whispered as I moved from him and picked up my bag.

I gave him one last look and exited the library.

I was frantic, ‘Al… Al… Where is he?!’ I thought.

I could hear my footsteps echoing off of the ancient walls. They were loud and fast.

I arrived at the fat lady’s portrait and screamed at her “HINKYPUNK”. Maybe I was a tiny bit too loud/intimidating/excited.

The common room was packed, but I didn’t care. I was fed up of trying to be in a perfect bromance with him. I fucking loved him and didn’t care who knew it.

He was lounging in the most comfortable armchair, reading his book.

“Al.” I said.

“Floss,” he said, “Are you okay?”

“I’m perfect,” I said, smiling, “especially now.”

I cupped his face in my hands, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Zambini but that’s because I didn’t love him, I loved you!”

I kissed him full on the lips, in front of everyone because I finally wasn’t scared to show everyone who I was. I was in love with Albus Severus Potter.


	29. Just because you're single doesn't mean everyone else has to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scor's PoV

Christmas was quickly approaching and I couldn’t believe that I was already a third of the way through my last year at Hogwarts. It had all gone so fast; it seems like yesterday when I was rolling my eyes because I had to sit next to “Weasley” (as I would’ve called her then). Now she was one of my best friends and I don’t think I’d be able to live without her. Merlin, that was cheesy. I won’t do that again.

This Christmas was going to be particularly good this year. I hoped. I was going to be staying in the Burrow with the Weasley/Potter clan. Of course, I don’t know how I’d be able to look Mr Weasley in the eye without accidentally revealing the nature of mine and Rose’s relationship. We’ve successfully kept it from Al and the rest of the group but there has been an occasional slip-up or two.

School finished on the Friday and we boarded the Hogwarts express (I never know why they sometimes let us floo and sometimes they don’t. Weird.).   
Al and I got a detention with Professor Boulting for not doing our research. UGH. He let us out really late too, we ended up having to run to Hogsmeade. Believe it or not, despite his skinny stature, Al is fast and has surprisingly good stamina.

We literally got to the station with only half a minute to spare, luckily we had already sent our stuff down to the station. As we entered the compartment, I practically collapsed on to Rosie. She pushed my hair out of my face.

“I offered to help you with that homework.” She laughed.

I rolled my eyes, and sat up, fixing my hair. In that moment I was fighting off the urge to kiss her. You don’t know quite how hard it is until it happens to you.

Flossie was sitting on Al’s lap. They were just couple goals. It was slightly annoying that they could flaunt their love and actually tell people, but then again, they don’t have years upon years of family hostility weighing on their shoulders. I don’t like saying this out loud, or even thinking about it, but sometimes I think Rose and I will never be able to publicly be a couple. But I need to trust that she always has a plan. She _always_ has a plan.

They started to make out, I sighed.

Rosie coughed, “At least Ruby and Cam had the decency to go to the loo to make out”.

Flossie laughed, “Just because you’re single doesn’t mean we have to be.”

I could feel Rosie getting annoyed; she was pursing her lips and her ears were turning an unnatural shade of red (well, maybe not unnatural for a Weasley).

She took a deep breath and stood up.

“I’m gonna go to the toilet. I’ll be back in 10 *cough* minutes.” She turned and walked swiftly out of our compartment.

That was it. That was our code. If anyone coughed in between saying ‘ten’ and ‘minutes’ we had to go and catch up with them.

“I’m gonna go see if Weasley is okay.” I stood up and walked out of the compartment. I walked for about a minute until I saw a flash of striking red hair. She disappeared through the door at the end of the train. I quickly followed her and disappeared through the door myself.

The cold air hit me like brick wall. I took a deep breath and staggered forward. Rose turned around; she had been crying, although it was hard to tell since the cold could’ve easily done that.

We stood in silence for a moment or two, until I felt the need to say something.

“I love you, Rose, and even though we can’t tell anyone at the moment, one day we will.” I stuttered.

“I love you too, Scor.” She said, still staring forward.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m just tired. Nothing that a stay at the burrow won’t fix.”

I chucked, “I’m excited, I heard your Granny’s food is to die for.”

Rose turned around and linked her arm with me, “Yes, it is.” She smiled, “And anyway, I’ve found a secret spot in the forest near the house, so…”

I kissed her on the top of her head just before we re-entered the carriage.

Rose slid open the door to the compartment. Flossie was resting her head on Al’s shoulder whilst reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. As soon as she saw us she sat up.

“I’m sorry-” she began.

“No.” Rosie replied, “You don’t have to be sorry; you did nothing. It was just a joke.”

Flossie sighed. “Anyway,” Floss said, “the Sherlock cast Q&A is on Thursday – the twenty eighth – but they weren’t selling tickets so I think that we’re gonna have to wait in line from at least 5 in the afternoon.”

Rose squealed with excitement.

I turned to Al, “Are you going?”

“Merlin, of course, I was actually wondering if you’d like to come too, because I would not like to subject you to a whole evening of questioning by Uncle Ron.”

I laughed, nervously.

“I’d love to go! I’m obsessed with Sherlock!”

Wow. The inner fangirl was really showing.

Al and I carried on our Sherlock conversation. Turns out he’s a Johnlock shipper. I don’t know where to go from here.

Anyway, Ruby and Cam returned from doing whatever they were doing. By themselves. In secret. On a train.

“What took you so long?” Rose asked, facetiously.

Ruby rolled her eyes as I let out a snigger.

“Let’s just say that we were busy.” Cam said.

Then it was my turn to roll my eyes, “You were having sex. Don’t use your pathetic innuendos on me.”

Then he replied “Just because you’re single doesn’t meant everyone else has to be.”

Oh merlin.

Al laughed. Like really loudly.

“Déjà vu, much?” Rosie sniggered.

“What?” Ruby asked.

I replied, “I’ll explain.” …

We shortly arrived at Kings Cross. I said goodbye to Cam, Ruby and Flossie and made my way over to the Potters.

We said hello and the usual pleasantries, they even insisted I called them by their first names. We left platform 9 and ¾ and got into a blue Ford Anglia.

When we arrived at the burrow; it was magnificent. It looked like it was being held up by invisible poles. Inside wasn’t even less impressive; there were numerous pieces of art on the wall and even though not all the furniture was matching, it felt comfortably and friendly – exactly like a home should feel. Quickly after that, we were bombarded by a sea of red hair, freckles and blue eyes. Somehow, one pair shone more brightly than the others.


	30. Holidays at the Burrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's holiday season at the burrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV
> 
> Please R&R

He looked so awkward. It was hilarious. I’m sure that to him the pleasantries and greetings seemed endless; after all, he was a dot of white in a blanket of red. A while later, Granny called us all into the dining room for dinner. It’s funny, even though the majority of the ‘next gen’ kids are over 17 (with the exception of Lily and Huges) we all still sit at the ‘kids’ end of the table. It’s quite sad. Despite this, the conversation was still rather amusing. It all started when Dad turned to Scor.

“So,” Dad started, after swallowing a bite of chicken, “how do you like the burrow?”

“It’s really cool, it’s very differ-” Scor began.

“I suppose you’re not used to this sort of environment. After all you are a – Ow!!” Mum must’ve kicked him under the table.

“Don’t be rude, Ronald.” Mum said.

“It’s ok,” Scor began, “The burrow is very different to Malfoy Manor. I must say that I think I prefer the burrow, mainly because it feels so much more homey than the Manor.”

“hmm.” Dad replied, he obviously hadn’t gotten over the fact that a Malfoy is at the burrow, being polite and interesting.

“So,” Uncle Harry piped up, trying to diffuse the tension, “Scorpius, do you have a girlfriend?”

Scor spluttered and coughed. He had obviously choked on his drink. I think I went a bit red; I felt my face growing hot. I hope I hid it well enough.

“Oh, No. I’m-” He began, until Al (fortunately) cut him off.

“Scor’s as barren as a deserted shack in the Sonoran Desert.”

“Albus.” Auntie Ginny hissed.

Al sighed, “I just meant that he hasn’t had a girl since 6th year.”

“As opposed to you,” I retorted, in defence of my (secret) boyfriend, “Who had a competitive, manipulative Hufflepuff (Who knew there was one!) for a month and now has a   
perfectly nice girl who you’re probably going to screw up anyway.”

Al raised one eyebrow, “Touché.”

I smirked a Malfoy worthy smirk.

Al sat back in his chair, accepting the fact that I am great at debating and he should never fight back. Then his eyes got unusually wide.

“Who’s this ‘perfectly nice girl’ Rosie talks of?” Auntie Ginny inquired.

The look Al then proceeded to give me could only be described as the ‘Fuck you, Rosie’ look.

“Well…” He started, “You know Flossie?” they nodded, “So, well, umm, we’ve been together for a while now, and, well you know…” 

He went really red as James started to laugh.

Scor patted Al on the back as Al buried his head in his hands.

I was thinking to myself that maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to admit to my parents that Scor and I were going out. But then I remembered what Dad said on my first day. I sighed. It seemed as though it was never going to happen.

Uncle Harry and Auntie Ginny started the usual questioning after that.

“How long have you been going out?”

“How did you ask her out?”

You know, the usual sort of questioning.

After a while of that, we all went upstairs to make our beds. Al and Scor were in one room, James, Huges, Louis and Fred were in another. Uncle Percy and Auntie Audrey went away with Molly and Lucy so there was extra room.  
Lily, Dom and I were Uncle Charlie’s room and Vic and Teddy were in Uncle Percy’s as they had just got engaged. I was happy but I didn’t know if I could be happy with all of the proclamations of love around, especially since my boyfriend was in the next room. *Sigh*.

The next day was Tree decorating day, the best day in the Weasley calendar! Of course we didn’t just decorate the tree, we also did all of the Christmas Eve cooking so we could spend Christmas eve cooking for Christmas. Despite what you may think, the burrow is actually surprisingly organised.

Al and I were the last people to wake, normally it’s Huges who takes the longest to get up. We arrived downstairs at quarter to 12, Scor was sitting at the table peeling potatoes, Granny was not pleased with us.

“Where have you been?” she screeched, “do you know how much we have to do today?”

Al rolled his eyes.

“Sorry Granny,” I said, looking at my feet because if I looked at Scor I would laugh at the sight of him cooking.

“Scorpius was downstairs at 9 o’clock, ready to help, whilst you were still sleeping.” 

Scor smirked, I rolled my eyes.

Al slumped down on a chair, he was obviously still tired. Someone was up very late texting his girlfriend on his muggle phone.

“Al!” said Granny, clicking her fingers in front of his face, “You know the drill, start rolling the pastry.”

I sighed.

As I sat down, Scor chuckled. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Wait,” he said, I was confused, “You have a bit of toothpaste on your cheek.”

I could feel myself blushing. Ugh. Way to make it obvious, Rose!

After about an hour and a half of making and rolling pastry and filling and decorating pies, I was ready to sleep again. My arm was in agony.

“Granny,” I began, “I know it’s a bit late but why didn’t we make one pie and multiply it; we’re wizards for a reason.”

She smiled, “Because I felt like making you cook.”

It was, as an answer, short but not so sweet. 

Quickly after I had asked that, Dad and Uncle Harry walked in, levitating a 9 foot Christmas tree.

“It’s a good one this year, Mum.” Said Dad.

“Yeah,” Uncle Harry joined in, “It’s perfectly symmetrical and very green.”

“It’s perfect!” Granny exclaimed.

They left to go mount the tree in the living room.

Al sighed theatrically, stretching his arms, “Merlin,” he said, “That woman is crazy.”

I tutted, “She just likes Christmas, and anyway, now we can start decorating the tree.”  
________________________________________  
I woke up particularly early on Christmas morning. Quarter past two to be exact. I turned over in bed but I couldn’t get back to sleep. Maybe it wasn’t just Granny who gets   
excited at Christmas. 

I quietly slid out of bed and put on my dressing gown and slippers and put the box into my pocket. I gently opened the door and slipped out of the room, hopefully unnoticed. I crossed the hallway, to get to Al and Scor’s room. Just as I was about to turn the door handle, the door opened and standing in front of me was Scor.

“I was just coming to…” I stuttered.

“So was I…” He smiled.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him down the stairs, through the kitchen into the garden. It was cold. I’m not going to lie. After all, it was the middle of December and the ground was covered in snow.

We walked right to the back of the garden, past the homemade quidditch pitch and into the woods, right at the back.

I looked at his beautiful grey eyes shining in the moonlight. Merlin, I loved him. I don’t know how or why. I just do.  
He was at least 4 inches taller than me, but I didn’t mind. It was fun to rest my arms on his neck when I kissed him; it was fun to jump on to him and actually be picked up and it was fun to have him. It was perfect.

I stood in the snow, resting my arms around his neck, swaying slightly.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” I asked, quietly.

“Very much so.” He replied, in a similar tone.

I looked at him, and smiled.

I moved my hands from his neck to his face and leant in to kiss him.

He reciprocated and then whispered “Merry Christmas, Rosie.” In my ear.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flossie's Pov

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is written by the fantastic Dobby_is_the_father - I've written a chapter on her totally awesome story Life before death.

I rested my head on Al's shoulder, watching the credits roll on series three of Sherlock. I sighed, and stretched a little. The Room of Requirement was dimly lit, and had transfigured itself into a small living room, complete with television and large sofa. It was completely blissful, and catching up with my boyfriend after two long weeks apart couldn't have been better. 

 

He turned to me, and pushed the hair out of my eyes. "I love you." He whispered. 

 

"I love you too" I answered, and leaned forward, tilted his chin up with two fingers and pressed my mouth to his. After a moment, he pulled away, pressing our foreheads together. 

 

"We have to go." He sounds just as disappointed as I feel. 

 

"But I want to stay here." I whine.

 

"So do I, Flossie, but it's late. C'mon, lets go back up to the tower." He pulled me up, and put a comforting arm around my shoulder. We ventured outside, checking the coast was clear multiple times. As we entered the stretch of corridor leading up to the portrait hole, we walked slowly, fingers intertwined, neither of us wanting the moment to end. We quietly gave the password. The portrait swung open, and we clambered through. We stopped just inside the common room, and Al stooped and whispered once more that he loved me. I whispered back that I did too, and was just about to kiss him one final time when I heard a familiar shrill voice. 

 

"Get your hands off him, you little slut." I whirled around. Thea was standing there, arms folded, lips pursed. 

 

"Thea? What the hell are you doing in Gryffindor Tower?" I said incredulously. 

 

"More like what are you doing with your hands on Albus?" She sneered. 

 

"Thea, what are you talking about? Flossie is my girlfriend, I'm allowed to kiss her!" Al retorted. 

 

"Yes - but you don't love her! You - you always said you loved me!" Thea sounded absolutely deranged. 

 

"No, Thea. You need to leave." Al pointed to the portrait hole. 

 

"Fine." Thea stepped so close to me I could feel her breath on my cheek. "But don't think this is over, bitch." She stormed out. Al let out a long sigh and crumpled on the sofa. 

 

"Al?" I sat next to him. "Al, it's okay." I took his hand in mine and ran my free hand through his hair. He stayed silent for a moment, opening his mouth a few times - but no words came out for a good few minutes. 

 

"I regret it, Floss." His voice cracked, tears brimmed in his eyes. "You have to know that. I told her I loved her because - I don't know. Maybe I thought I did, or maybe it was because I was trying to hide the fact I loved you - have always loved you. But it was a mistake. Please, believe me." Tears spilled over his lashes, and I could feel myself about to cry. "Please, Flossie. I love you."

 

"I know." I murmured, and captured his lips with mine. We kissed for what could have been eternity, and when I finally pulled away, I wiped away the tears staining his face and laid my head on his chest. 

 

"I don't want to leave you." He whispered. 

 

"Then don't." I whispered back. And that night, we fell asleep in each other's arms on a sofa in the Gryffindor common room. 

 

 

The next morning I thought everything might have died down - that is, until we arrived at breakfast. As I sat down, I saw Thea clambering awkwardly up onto the table. 

 

"Everybody listen!" She cried gleefully. "I thought you all might like to know that our very own dear little Flossie, Gryffindor Prefect and all round star -" she paused a minute, to let the sarcasm drip from her voice and onto the surrounding crowds. "-is being rather indecent! Sleeping around, with other people's boyfriends, may I add, accusing other girls of lying, and being an all round BITCH!" She yelled. I turned to Al. 

 

"Al, I would never -"

 

"I know. I know." He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. 

 

"And -" she crowed "- she's even been sleeping with her supposed boyfriend's BROTHER!" Everyone gasped. "That's right, James Potter has been fucking his brother's girlfriend!" She took a moment to let this sink in, then stepped down from the table. 

 

I was over there in a flash, blinded by rage, and before I could stop myself, I had slapped her round the face. The silence in the Great Hall was utterly deafening. 

 

"You two! My office. Now!" Professor McGonagall shrieked. 

 

And that was how I found myself, at ten o'clock that night, shovelling owl poop into a red plastic bucket with Thea at my side. 

 

"I'm sorry." She mumbled as we headed for the door, the Owlery cleaner than I had ever seen it before. 

 

"I'm sorry too."

 

"S'not your fault. I was a bitch. Albus really does love you, I suppose." 

 

I arrived back in the common room smelly and exhausted, only to see a silhouetted figure seated on a sofa. I walked closer to see - 

 

"Al!" I had never been more glad to see him. I threw myself into his arms and kissed him. "You waited up for me." I said, surprised. 

 

"Of course I did." He looked confused as to why he wouldn't. 

 

"Goddammit I love you so much." I whispered, grinning. He pulled me close and spoke very quietly in my ear. 

 

"I know." 


	32. Greetings and Graduation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scor's PoV

The monotony of January turned slowly into the iciness of February, which then turned into March. March was good. Not exciting, but not bad. Cam and Ruby went through a rocky patch, but it’s all happy-go-lucky now. Flossie and Al were as sickeningly perfect as ever. Everything with them was “I love you”, “Let’s go to Hogsmeade together!”. I was getting really fed up. Rosie and I had actually started thinking about telling people. It started off as a joke one Friday night, but the next morning we found that it was still on our minds.

I made my way down to the common room after showering and dressing and saw her sitting on the big, comfy, red armchair. I walked over to behind the chair and kissed her on the top of her head.

“Good morning.” I whispered.

Rose turned her head and pulled me in closer.

“Good morning” she replied, “Anyway, I’ve been working on a plan.”

I laughed; it was so like her to plan when she couldn’t sleep.

“Oh really?” I joked, “how far have you gotten?”

She rolled her eyes and playfully hit my arm with her notebook, “I’ll have you know that I have made a very secure plan.”

I chuckled, “secure? With the Malfoys and the Weasleys? Is that possible?”

“Ha ha. Very funny. I mean as secure as it can be.”

“Fair enough,” I replied, sitting back in the blue armchair, “how are we going to do this?”

Rosie sat up a little straighter and pushed up her reading glasses, “So, I’m thinking that maybe we should tell them one family at a time, but on the same day. Do you want to tell them together or separately? I’m not quite sure… Dad might get a little pissed because it’ll be graduation and I’m his little girl so I wouldn’t think to do it together. Or we could do it separately and risk Dad thinking you’re a coward-”

 _Wait, what?_ I thought.

I looked at her, “Graduation? That’s like 4 months away.”

“well done, Scor; you can count.”

I rolled my eyes, and sighed, “I meant, why so long? There are plenty of opportunities before then.”

“Um…” she stuttered, “I just think that maybe the other times aren’t so useful.”

I could feel myself getting agitated, “Fuck that! They’re perfectly fine; you are just _scared_.”

Rose looked a bit stunned, and then she snarled, “Scared of what?”

“Scared of not being Daddy’s perfect little girl; scared of actually committing to a relationship and scared of openly dating a _Malfoy_.”

She took a step back and shook her head, “I’m not scared! I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with you for over 9 months! And, for your information, my family fought to reinstall the sense of equality in the wizard community so it doesn’t matter who I date, regardless of their last name!”

I rolled my eyes and muttered under my breath, “Yeah right.”

Rose’s eyes widened, “I actually cannot be fucking dealing with you right now. Leave.” I looked at her with the look I call ‘SRSLY’. “ _LEAVE!_ ” she shouted.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my jacket and promptly clambered out of the portrait hole. Of course, I headed straight to the library. I always go there when I’m pissed; it helps me clear my head.

Al and Flossie turned up about 20 minutes after me. They pull up chairs either side of me, I sighed, knowing what this was going to be about.

“Rose is major league pissed.” Al said.

“Like fuming.” Flossie said. They were way too couple-y for me right now.

“I know.” I grumbled.

“But she wouldn’t tell us why…” Floss said, subtly trying to get details of the blow up.

“And neither will I.” I said, picking up my stuff and leaving the library.

I sighed as I returned to the corridor. Maybe I had been a bit hard on Rose, to be honest I’m not very sure how my dad will take it.

I went back to the heads’ dorm, going over what I was going to say in my mind.

As the portrait swung open, I saw Rose full-out stress-studying in the common room. Yes, she stress-studies; so do I. Her papers were sprawled out over the floor, along with the text books and her folders.

“What do you want?” She sighed.

“I want to say sorry. I know that you have your reasons for keeping it so late and I trust you.”

“Ok.” She smiled. I leant in to kiss her but she pushed me away, “I’ve been feeling terrible all day, I don’t want you to catch anything.”

“Ok.” I said, pulling her into a hug: a long, warm hug.

I woke up at 2 in the morning to the sound of Rose vomiting. _Merlin_ , I thought, _I hope she’s OK_.


	33. Cheesy novels and Churning stomachs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose's poV

I sat on the shut toilet, grasping the stick in my shaking hands – the lady at the pharmacy in Hogsmeade told me it could take up to five minutes to give an answer. I checked my Weasley gold watch; it had only been a minute. I set the test on the granite countertop, next to the sink, and proceeded to wash my hands – who’d have guessed that pissing on a stick could be so hard? Funny that dudes would find this task so easy but they don’t have to carry a fucking child in their would-be womb so even if they were to come across a pregnancy test, peeing on it would be futile. I checked the test again – no mark, I suppose I still had three minutes to go.

I tried to to think of other think of other things like my potions essay; what easter egg granny would have made me and whether Vic will force me to spend my whole holiday flicking through bridal magazines with her. Somehow, I ended up wondering whether there would be a special potion pregnant people would have to take; if I will be getting weird, non-chocolate accepting cravings and how fat I’ll look in my bridesmaid outfit if I was 8 months pregnant. Ugh. Was this what my life was destined for? Constantly thinking about pregnancies and children? UGGGHHH!

I re-checked the stick – nothing; one minute to go. I hadn’t even thought about what Scorpius would say. I probably didn’t need to. He’d be all “Rosie, I’m so sorry.” And “We’ll be in this together.”. I couldn’t deal with that now. Don’t get me wrong, I love him so much it hurts, but he needs to live his life without distractions and I need to think about some things without factoring him in. That sounds really bad. The thing is that I love him so much that I want him to have the best life possible but if it includes a kid at seventeen, I don’t think that’ll be possible.

My watch begins to beep; five minutes is up. I closed my eyes and picked up the stick that was standing between me and my future of partying and being irresponsible. I reluctantly opened my eyes, only to see 2 red lines that were code for the end of my life – i.e being pregnant. Fuck.

I stared at it, not believing my luck. I tapped the screen thing again with my wand, the lines disappeared and for a second I thought that I was waking up from a terrifying dream, then the lines reappeared. I sighed and slumped against the cupboards underneath the sink and began to cry. I can only remember crying twice at Hogwarts: the yule ball incident and the internship at the daily profit incident. Crying is just so inconvenient; it makes people think that you’re weak and the salt in your tears make your eyes sting and your cheeks go sticky. I wiped my eyes, trying to compose myself –

_*BANG**BANG**BANG*_

“Rose!” I heard Scor’s voice shout, “You’ve been in there for ages! Open the fucking door! I gotta pee!”

“Okay.” I replied shakily and unbolted the door.

Scorpius barged past me and undid his fly. I realised that I was still holding the test. _Where should I put it?_ I thought, _Aaaah, crap!_

Shoving it in a drawer, I muttered an unbreakable locking charm (just in case).

Scor turned around and asked, “sorry, did you say something?”

“No.” I replied, looking at my feet.

I felt his hands cup my face, “Are you okay?”.

My reflection in the mirror was quite daunting; my eyes were puffy and red; my cheeks were flushed but my skin was paler than usual.

 _This is the perfect time to tell him,_ I thought.

“u-uh,” I stuttered, _go on,_ the voice said, “I, uh, I think,” _GO ON,_ “It must be the aftershock of the flu I had last week.” _COWARD!!!!_

“Okay,” He replied, “let’s go lie down then.”

“What?” I replied, confused.

“I’ll go tell the others that we’re not going to dinner because we’re ill and we’ll see them tomorrow at breakfast before we floo home for Easter, and then we can go read in bed. I know you like cheesy romance novels when you are sick.”

All I could do was look up at him. He was the perfect boyfriend. _Perfect_.

I nodded and hugged him. Not too tight. I didn’t know the deal with the baby yet.

“Okay,” Scor said, “I’ve told flossie that you’re ill and I’m coming down with something. I also told them not to come up because we won’t hear them knock. So now that that’s all sorted, what book have you chosen?”

“What, sorry?” I replied, dazed, “Oh yeah, I chose ‘what if’ by Georgia MacGrey – it should be good, Lily recommended it”.

“Okay then, let’s read.” He said, climbing under the covers, pulling me closer and putting on his glasses. I couldn’t help but fail to supress a giggle. “Don’t laugh!” He whined, “I ran out of contacts!”

“Okay. I think you look cute in them though.” I replied, “anyway, you read now.”

Scor chuckled, pushed his glasses up and began.

“ _Chapter one – the party  
She liked him. He liked her. Everybody could tell. Apart from them.”_

I rested my head on Scor’s chest and shut my eyes. I didn’t realise just how tired I was until then.

“ _’Harry’ Maddy called, catching up with her best friend, ‘couldn’t slow down for me?’ He looked at his feet and grunted. ’God, you’re so full of teen angst. Anyway, are you going to the party on the corner of 4 th and Rosebud?’ He nodded_...” I missed the last part of that sentence as I was slowly falling asleep.

My dream was weird. I was walking down a country road, hand in hand with Scor. We were just talking and then I blurted out that I was pregnant.

He dropped my hand and began to fade. “Scorpius” I called, but he kept becoming more translucent until he eventually disappeared completely. I was beside myself and I slumped against a tree trunk. Suddenly, my stomach began to inflate. I couldn’t understand what was happening and I tried calling for Al, James and all of my other cousins but they’d appear, look straight _through_ me and fade like Scor.

After hearing a pop, I woke up with a start. My breathing hitched, I prised myself from my sleeping boyfriend, went to the bathroom and proceeded to vomit. Ugh. Morning sickness – fun! My mind was racing with questions and queries about the dream. I went to get the mouthwash from the drawer when I remembered that it was locked. For a very good reason. I knew in that moment that I needed to tell Scorpius, I just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing his face when I told him. So I wrote a note.

I stuck the test to the paper with spellotape, put the letter into an envelope and placed the envelope on Scor’s pillow in his room before returning to my bed and boyfriend. Well, I keep saying boyfriend, but I mean the boy that I’m in a secret monogamous relationship with. I climbed back into bed and wrapped myself in Scor’s arms.

I awoke suddenly at 7. It was one of those waking-ups when you know that you will not get back to sleep. I realised that I hadn’t packed for the burrow so I got up to start to gather my things.

About fifteen minutes later, Scorpius began to stir.

“Rosie…” he mumbled.

“I’m over here.” I replied.

“Ugh. Come back to bed.” He moaned.

“I need to pack now if I’m gonna get an early floo home.”

“Why don’t you leave at one like me and Al?”

“I wanna see Granny and Grandad and help out before everyone else gets to the burrow this evening.”

I folded my last t-shirt, put it into my suitcase and stood up.

“I’m gonna go down to breakfast and head off afterwards. So, I’ll guess I’ll see you next term.” I said quickly, looking at my feet.

“Okay, I’ll owl you – we could meet or something?”

“Um, okay, if you want…” I responded, flinching when he leant in to kiss me, “Don’t kiss me. I might be, um, contagious.”

“Okay” scor said, “I love you.

“I love you too, despite anything I say or do, I love you more than humanly possible and I only ever have your best interest at heart.”

He looked confused. I couldn’t believe that I was doing this. I picked up my suitcase and walked out, trying to conceal my tears. Ugh – I hate crying.


	34. Easter and envelopes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scor's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REALLy short chapter. sorry!

That was very confusing; the night before she was hugging me and snuggling up to me as I read to her and now she was dodging my hugs and being distant. To be honest, ever since she got the flu she had been a bit more distant. I looked around her room; it was quiet. I didn’t like it.

I walked out of Rose’s room, across the hall into mine. There, on my pillow, was an envelope with _Scorpius_ written on it in Rose’s chaotic scrawl. I felt a lump rise in my throat and my heart thumping in my ears. _She was gonna break up with me_ I thought.

My trembling fingers teared the envelope open. It was heavy. Along with a letter, a stick fell out of it. I knew exactly what it was. A pregnancy test. I picked it up, not believing my luck; it was positive. I swallowed. It couldn’t be… well, it could but… well… Fuck.

I hadn’t even read the letter. I didn’t want to. The thought of it made me sick. How could I have been so stupid? It was all _my fault_ ; if I just remembered to cast the charm we would not be in this fucking situation.

I dropped the stick and picked up the letter. Every character made me shake. _Breathe_ I told myself.

It read:

_Hi Scorpius,_

_By now I take it you have seen it. I’m pregnant. With child. In the family way. I think I should’ve realised sooner. I’m sorry Scor, I should’ve remembered to take the pill every day. All I am trying to say is that I fucked up and I don’t want to drag you down with me, so from now on, you will do what’s best for you and your future and forget about me. I love you too much to ruin your life at seventeen. This child might have piercing grey eyes or white, blonde hair but I relieve you of your duties as a father or a boyfriend. I love you, Scor, and it is for this reason that I am doing it. So, we only have 3 ½ months left until we graduate. Let’s be civil until then, no one will know who the father is and you can just be the concerned friend. Which you shall be. After graduation I am gonna leave. Leave your life. I know I’ve said this a lot, but I do, truly, love you. And I will always, but I have to do what’s best for you._

_Rose X_

I just sat on my bed staring at the letter. I couldn’t believe that I had, so quickly, been introduced and excluded from my unborn child’s life. Suddenly, I thought that maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t quite left yet. I ran out of the dorm as quickly as I could. I ran to the great hall, not stopping. I was breathing heavily but my legs wouldn’t give. I got to the fireplaces scanning the queues for red hair and freckles. Bingo! There she was, second in line.

“Rose…” I panted. Her eyes widened, and she looked away.

She dragged me to the side, “What, Scor?”

“Is it… are you… really?” I stuttered.

“Did you not see the test?” Rosie sighed.

“Well, yes. Do you really want me to leave you?”

She pursed her lips. “Yes. That’s why I wrote it. Me and you are over, Scorpius. O-V-E-R”

I was taken aback by that. “Umm” I stuttered.

“Let me leave now.” She spat, with a bite in every word.

Rose marched off into an open fireplace and enunciated “The Burrow”.

I dragged myself back to the heads’ dorm. I sat on the floor, leaning against my bed. I couldn’t bring myself to think about what just happened. It was too painful.

I grabbed a bag and a couple clothes I would need when I got back home, shoved them in the rucksack and got changed.

A while later, I went to the great hall to meet Al.

Him and Flossie were canoodling on the bench. Ugh. I rolled my eyes.

“What’s got your knickers in a twist?” Al joked.

I sighed, “Nothing, mate.”

“Really? Scor, do you honestly think we’re that stupid?” Flossie said.

“Maybe I’m just tired. I’m gonna head off now, I think I’m coming down with the flu that Rose had.”

“Sure. I’ll owl you.” Said Al.

I walked out of the hall, picking up my bag. I stepped into an empty fireplace and flooed back home. This was gonna be a long Easter holiday.


	35. Red or green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is reeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's PoV

The swirling, green flames engulfed me. Scor and I were officially over. It hurt. _Wait_ I thought, _what will flooing do to the baby?_ I shut my eyes and forced myself not to think about it. This holiday was going to be stress free.

I tumbled out of Granny and Grandad’s fireplace.

“Hi!” I called, trying to make my voice sound as stable as possible.

“Rosie? Is that you?” Granny called back from the kitchen.

She walked out of the doorway with flour on her apron.  “What are you doing here?” Granny asked.

“I was tired,” I replied, “And anyway, I didn’t want to have to wait in long queues to floo back here.” I yawned, deeply.

Granny looked me up and down. “You look terrible, Rosie.”

“Thanks!” I laughed.

“You are really pale, and the bags under your eyes are huge. Go get some sleep. I set up Ginny’s old room for you as always.”

“No,” I said, “I’m fine really. Is there anything I can do?”

Granny glared at me. I cowered under her stare. I turned and trudged up the stairs. I knew I needed more sleep, and I knew that I looked terrible but I couldn’t bear having nothing to think about. Or, more likely, having a reason to think about the baby.

I got to the room and unpacked my things. I slumped on the bed. The last 24 hours had had _way_ too many emotions for my liking. I lay back, forced my eyes shut and curled up under the duvet. I tried and I tried to rid my mind of thoughts and feelings and everything that would stand in the way of my rem sleep. Easier said than done. After 3 hours of drifting in and out of different nightmares I decided to do something about it.

I lugged myself out of the bed and hauled my tired body over to the fireplace. I knew if I wanted to do this right, I had to go to St Mungo’s and sort this out. Well, you know, try and sort it out. I grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the fire and enunciated “St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries”.

“Hello, how can we help you?” A voice with a thick, west Country accent asked.

“Erm,” I stuttered, “I want to make an appointment for tomorrow.”

“Ok then, love. What department?” She asked.

“Erm, uh, maternity.” I whispered.

“Name?” She inquired in response.

 _Damnit!_ I thought, _If I set up an appointment, it’ll be all over the news by tomorrow. Maybe I should just use a fake name… Nah, I really can’t be arsed to use a fake name._

“Rose Weasley.” I answered, “My name is Rose Weasley.”

“Okay, Rose, your appointment will be with Healer Fawley, tomorrow at 10:45.”

“Thank you.” I said, pulling my face out of the green flames.

I flopped back on to the bed and sighed. _At least I don’t need to worry until tomorrow_ I thought, _Well, worry as little as I can._

I managed to get a decent amount of sleep after I had set up the appointment, which was surprising because I didn’t think I’d be getting any sleep until this kid was a 2-year-old.

I woke up 4 hours later when Lily rudely barged in. (I say rudely; I really mean walked in cos she was sharing this room with me. Lucky her.)

“Rosie,” She whispered. I rolled over.

“Hey,” I mumbled, “What time is it?”

She lay down on the bed, next to me. “It’s almost 7, but granny said you didn’t need to come down if you weren’t feeling well.”

I sat up and stretched, “nah, I’m feeling much better now. And, anyway, I saw granny making burgers and I don’t wanna miss that.”

I clambered out of bed, tried to flatten my hair and put on my dressing gown. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I actually looked quite good, considering… The bags under my eyes had almost disappeared, my face had regained colour and I didn’t feel at all dizzy or nauseas.

I followed Lily out of the room, but suddenly started to regret my decision to come down to dinner. It wasn’t because of anything physical, I just hate attention, and I hate people presuming that I’m ill (even more when they ask “How are you?” patronisingly).

I toddled down the stairs, huddled in my comfy dressing gown.

“Evenin’ Red!” James called from the kitchen.

“I have told you not to call me that every time you have spoken to me since I was three. I didn’t know it would take you 14 years to get that through your head.” I sighed.

“Well,” James exhaled, rolling his eyes, “At least we know you aren’t too ill to hurt us.”

I laughed. Then my parents turned up.

“Rosie?” Mum said, frantically entering the room, “Are you ok?”

I chuckled, “I’m absolutely fine, mum. I was tired; I got no sleep last night.”

She pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead. “Yeah, your forehead isn’t warm at all.”

I woke up early the next morning; I was stressed as _fuck_. I sat up and picked up my iPad. There was no way I would ever be able to get to sleep now that I’d woken up (especially under _these_ circumstances). I picked up my beats headphones and opened up Netflix (Netflix is an AWESOME streaming site where you can watch a myriad of different movies and television shows. It is heaven on earth). I couldn’t decide what to watch; there was just so much. I ended up watching Sherlock. Can’t complain. Well, I can complain about my situation but I hate it when people complain but aren’t willing to change it.

Eventually, I got up, showered, dressed and went down to breakfast.

“Hey!” Al called, just as I was walking down the steps.

“Mornin’” I called back.

“What you up to today?” He asked.

“Err,” I stuttered, “I’m going to go up town to London, probably the muggle areas.”

“Hmm, sounds fun. I’m meeting FlossBean in Diagon Alley.”

I rolled my eyes, “FlossBean? Is that really the name you’re gonna go for?”

Al chuckled, I rolled my eyes, _again._ I checked my watch, _oh merlin_ , I thought, _I gotta go!_ It was already 10:30.

I grabbed a piece of toast and hurried towards the door. Stopping at the doorframe, I thought to ask Al something. “Al?” I asked.

“Yeah?” He responded, his mouth full of toast.

“Where is everyone?”

“Well,” he started, “Granny’s gone to visit Percy, she won’t be back until late. Vic and Teddy are out wedding invitation shopping. Lily and Hugo are going to meet up with some friends in Diagon Alley. Louis and Dom went with Vic and everyone else is at work.”  
“Ok, Thanks.” I said, actually leaving this time.

I walked out on to the front step, clenched my fists, said “St Mungo’s” over and over in my head and disapperated.

I stood in front of the maternity wing door. Ugh, I could hear the screaming babies from here. I hate babies. I’m not cut out for motherhood.

I walked in to the waiting room, plonked myself on to a chair and took out my iPod.

“Rose Weasley.” I heard the tannoy boom.

I stood up, pulled the white earbuds from my ears and walked nervously towards the door with the big, silver letters “HEALER FAWLEY” on it.

I knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

“Come in.” He called.

I walked anxiously into the room. It looked very clean and sterile. In that moment, I wished that ~~Scor~~ Malfoy had been.

“Hello Miss Weasley, how can I be of service?” Healer Fawley asked.

“Erm, well,” I stammered, “Erm, I’m pregnant.”

“Oh.” He replied, “I suppose you want to see how your baby is doing… I’ll just go get the test.”

He walked into the storage room. It was quiet.

“Here’s the beaker.” Healer Fawley said, handing it to me, “You can use the toilet there to pee in the container.”

I took the beaker and walked into the bathroom.

I emerged 5 minutes later with a beaker-full of urine. It was slightly disgusting.

He took the beaker from me and took out his wand.

“Of course, it is just a precaution to check but, though very rarely, pregnancy tests can be wrong. If you’re pregnant the liquid should go red.”

He tapped the beaker with his wand. The wee turned green. Butterflies flooded my stomach and a shiver ran down my spine.

“Oh,” the Healer said, “turns out you had gotten one of the faulty tests. Miss Weasley, you are not pregnant.”

I stood up, heart in my throat. “Thank you, Healer Fawley.” I said, choked.

I hurried out of the ward and towards an abandoned street. I wasn’t pregnant. That should’ve been a blessing. It _was_ a blessing. But it didn’t feel like it. My breathing was hitched. I stood up and tried to compose myself before apparating.

I reached the burrow and rushed through the door. I was frantic. Tears were streaming down my face, I just had to get upstairs, I just had to barricade myself in my room and not come out until it was time to return to Hogwarts.

I ran up the stairs, looking at my feet. Just as I got to the top, I bumped into someone. I looked up and saw James.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, shakily.

“I had the day off from work, they wanted to train the reserve seeker instead. What’s wrong, Red?”

“I told you not to call me that!” I shrieked, slumping down against the wall and bursting in to tears.

“Rose?” He said, apprehensively, slumping down next to me, “What’s wrong?”

I started to babble incoherently.

“Slow down.” James said, “Start from the beginning.”

“So… basically…” I said between sobs, “I thought I was pregnant… And I’m not… but I broke up with the person I love to give them a better chance… and I… and now I … I’ve lost him forever.” My eyes were red and my cheeks were wet and tearstained.

James’s expression was a mix of quizzical and seething, “Who is _he_?”.

 _Oh Merlin, fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck._ “e-e-e-erm,” I stuttered.

“Who is it, Red?”

“M-m” I started. I could see James realising the facts but not wanting to believe it. “Malfoy.”

James went red in the face and stood up, “Where is that slimy, little ferret?” He seemed livid.

“No, James. Please!” I begged, a bit too late, though.


	36. Puzzled looks and Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this is a totally AWESOME chapter by my best friend, Dobby_is_the_father. I've written a chapter on her AMAZING marauders era fic, go and check it out!
> 
> James' PoV then Scor's then Al's

I turned on the spot and disapparated instantly. I apparated outside Malfoy Manor, and stormed up the gravel pathway. It was a lot further than I thought, so halfway I had to stop to catch my breath. Then I resumed my storming. I banged on the door, and Draco Malfoy opened it.

 

"I need to speak to Scorpius." I fumed.

 

"I'm sorry, but he's not in - I could take a message if you'd like…?" He replied. I really couldn't see why Dad hated him so much. He seemed like a very reasonable guy. Even if his spawn did turn out to be little shitheads like Scorpius.

 

"No. Where is he?" I breathed deeply to stop myself exploding.

 

"Diagon Alley, I think," he replied, "with your brother and his girlfriend."

 

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy." I said through gritted teeth, and charged down the driveway again. They were far less gloomy than Dad always described them, with multiple flower gardens and tall, elegant topiary sculptures. But now was not the time for horticultural assessment of the Malfoy's garden. I disapparated once more to Diagon Alley. The streets were more or less deserted, and within a matter of minutes, I saw Scorpius's mop of blonde hair.

 

"Malfoy!" I yelled. His head whipped around, and he turned pale at the furious expression on my face. I could see Al looking nervous and Flossie looking puzzled. She was wearing her I Am Sher-Locked t-shirt again. I could have sworn that the only t-shirts she owned were fandom ones.

 

"James, what's happened?" She asked.

 

"He happened!" I cried, jabbing a finger in Scorpius's direction.

 

"James, be reasonable!" Al exclaimed.

 

"No, James! I will not be fucking REASONABLE!" I scream. "Scorpius Hyperion motherfucking Malfoy, you have been fucking my cousin, you let her think she was PREGNANT, ran away, and left her to deal with the fact it was a fucking false alarm! I am past being reasonable!"

 

"Wait, Rosie thought she was pregnant?" Flossie cut me off. "Wait, YOU'RE FUCKING ROSIE?! I FUCKING KNEW IT! RUBY OWES ME TEN GALLEONS!" She hugged Scorpius and pulled away with a massive grin on her face. "Wait." She faltered, smile rapidly fading. "You ran away? Scor, how could you?"

 

"Flossie, no - I didn't -" Scorpius stuttered.

 

"I trusted you." She whispered, tears filling her eyes. She ran off, Al at her heels. I rounded on Scorpius.

 

"I'm so, so sorry, James. I have to fix this." And with that, he disapparated. I couldn't fucking believe this kid.

 

Scor's POV

 

I apparated just outside the Burrow, and stumbled haphazardly towards the house, tears blurring my vision. I hammered on the door, shouting her name.

 

"Rosie! Rosie, please! Let me speak to you!" The door opened, and I saw a disgruntled looking Molly Weasley standing there. Her expression softened when she saw my tears.

 

"Scorpius! Whatever is the matter?" She cried, enveloping me in a tight embrace. I managed to choke out the words "I need to see Rosie." She pointed me upstairs, and I ran to her room. I took a moment to calm myself, and knocked.

 

"Who the fuck is it now?" She asked.

 

"It's me, Rosie."

 

"Scor?" She gasped, and opened the door a little. Her face was blotchy and there were dark rings beneath her eyes.

 

"Rosie, why didn't you tell me?"

 

"I did." She sniffed a little. "The letter."

 

"I mean about the appointment. About the false alarm."

 

"I barely found out myself! You're not always my number-one priority, you know!"

 

"Rosie, I just thought it would be a relief, maybe it could mean we -"

 

"Well, you thought wrong!" She yelled, and slammed the door. I stood there for a moment, dumbfounded.

 

"Rosie, please -"

 

"GO THE FUCK AWAY, MALFOY!" That hurt. She hadn't called me that since fourth year. Yet I did as she asked. I walked away. I disapparated outside the Burrow. And I waited. I waited for my Rosie.

 

 

Al's POV

 

"Flossie!" I shouted after her. "Flossie, wait!" I finally caught up with her, and the moment I did she turned and collapsed into my arms, sobs wracking her body.

 

"How could he?" She hiccupped.

 

"Flossbean, I'm sure he didn't. You know how James overreacts sometimes - well. Most times. But I'm sure it'll all work out. Okay?"

 

"Okay." She said thickly. I pulled away and wiped her tears away with my thumb.

 

"Hey." I whispered. "It's alright. I love you, you know that?"

 

"I love you too, Al." She murmured a little distractedly, and kissed me briefly but sweetly. She took my hand and we both apparated to the Burrow. Just as we arrived, I saw Scor running out, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

 

"Scor! Wait!" I cried after him, but too late. He had disapparated without a trace.

 

Flossie was already running ahead. She pushed open the door, and raced upstairs without pausing for a second thought. She burst through Rosie's door without knocking and threw herself down next to Rosie. They didn't say anything, just hugged for what seemed like forever, rocking back and forth, crying into each other's shoulders. When they finally pulled apart, Rosie addressed me, standing in the doorframe.

 

"James overreacted, didn't he?" She said, voice hoarse from crying.

 

"Could say that." I half-smirked.

 

"Oh god." She buried her face in her hands.

 

"Rosie, it's alright. We'll figure it out." Flossie said, pushing Rosie's hair out of her eyes.

 

"Promise?" Rosie whispered.

 

"I promise."


	37. Wounds and "What ifs"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starts off in Al's POV but changes around a lot.

The Easter holidays were long. But having a miserable Rosie in the room next to me made the holidays feel _so_ much longer. Most days Flossie and Ruby would come round to try and get Rosie to leave the house. The first time Rosie left the house after the _incident_ was three days afterwards. Rosie was taken to a muggle shopping centre by Flossie, she came home with some clothes, she tried to explain what they were and why they suit her body type. I hate to be stereotypical -That was the happiest I had seen her in days. The next day Ruby and Cam convinced her to go play quidditch at the Rent-A-Pitch. Considering Rosie isn’t even sporty normally, I thought she was getting better. By the end of the holiday, Rosie was a hell of a lot happier, but I hadn’t heard a word from Scor. That scared me.

I had sent him an owl saying that everything was cool between the two of us and for him not to worry. No reply. He always replied. The thing is that Lafayette, my owl, flew back the very same day; which means Scor must have seen it. Ugh. I really, really didn’t know what to do. Scor is my best friend and I had no idea what to do. I just had to wait ‘til Saturday. It wouldn’t be too long.

Saturday afternoon came all too slowly. It wasn’t as if I didn’t like staying at the Burrow, but as Dad would say, “It’s full on.”. On top of that, Rosie avoiding Scor was never going to do any good and going back to school and enduring a bit of exposure therapy couldn’t do much more harm.

At 5 o’clock, the floo connection was turned back on and Rosie, Hugo, Lily and I all said goodbye to our family and returned to the warm corridors we know and love.

 

ROSE’S POV

Hogwarts has always been my second home but at that moment, I couldn’t think of anything more unsettling. I told Ruby, Flossie, Al and Cam not to tell anyone so hopefully that drama would be over. I knew that every action has an equal opposite reaction but I was being naïve and optimistic. Scor was gone. No more Scorose/Rosius. We couldn’t decide on a ship name. Well, I suppose there was no “we” anymore. It was just me and him. No more “we”.

I hate pitying myself, or feeling sorry for myself, or even thinking “what if?” but sometimes I can’t help it. Maybe if I went to the Healers’ before I told Scorpius it would be fine. All these “maybe ifs” are driving me crazy. I just want it to stop.

I was, by this time, just coming up to the heads dorm. I was terrified. I am British and I did not want to face up to the consequences. Well, I think I was fine with the consequences, it was more the fact that I didn’t think I could cope with Scor.

The portrait door swung open and I hurried inside. The common room looked quiet and empty. I guessed that Scorpius hadn’t gotten there yet and headed up to my room. It was weird; my room was a polaroid of what life was like before the whole pregnancy scare. Scor’s jumpers and shirts sprawled across the floor and (ironically) a condom on the bedside table.  
I swallowed the lump in my throat and began to gather up Scor’s stuff. It was hard but it was what I needed to do.

 

SCOR’S POV

I didn’t want to talk to Al or Cam or Ruby or Flossie. I wanted to talk to Rosie. But she didn’t want to talk to me. I suppose that made it so much worse. When we would actually talk, I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

I arrived at school shortly after the Weasley/Potter clan. As soon as I stepped out from the fireplace Al rushed over to me and began to talk. Something about replying to owls and Rosie and stuff. I didn’t really want to talk. If I did want to talk I would’ve talked or replied to the owl. No one ever realises that if I want something I will go for it. Well, almost anything.

I trudged up to the Heads dorm. The portrait swung open to reveal an empty common room. I knew the whole compartment wasn’t but at least I could avoid her for a tiny bit longer. I crept up the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. I slipped into my bedroom and flopped on to my bed. I really wasn’t in the mood to have dinner or talk to anyone. In the last 2 weeks I had loved, lost and hit rock bottom. Throughout the Easter holidays I watched tv, ate and slept. It was very quiet.

My eyes fluttered shut and I got the first proper sleep since I was told that I was gonna be a father.

I awoke a while later. I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock. Everyone should have gone to dinner by then. I heaved myself out of bed and stumbled down to the common room. I didn’t really fancy dinner. I had eaten a big lunch and y’know, I’m still confuzzled.

Rosie was definitely at dinner; she _never_ misses a meal. She can be bitchy when she has eaten, now imagine what it is like if she doesn’t. I should really start forgetting information like that, after all, I’m not her anything anymore. I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. I opened up Netflix on my laptop and turned on Sherlock. I began to watch but I couldn’t concentrate. I got up and left the dorm, maybe some air would do some good.

It was light outside still, I walked down the hill to the great lake. It was still and everything was quiet. I thought I wanted quiet. I was so sure that I wanted quiet. I wanted no noise, no speech, not hassle. But why wasn’t I feeling better? To be honest, I knew why I wasn’t feeling better. I wanted to talk to Rosie and I wanted her to talk to me. Willingly. But that wasn’t going to happen. I slumped down and put my head between my legs. I remembered the last time I came down here; it was June last year and me and Rosie went skinny-dipping. Ughhhhhhh. Thinking about the past was torture, but ignoring it was worse.

 

ROSE’S POV

That’s when I saw him. His blonde hair was almost luminous in the dusk lighting. I had to make a decision, was I to stay and address the issue, or avoid it? I sighed. I knew what to do.

I sat down next to him. Slowly, Scor turned his head to look at me.

“hi.” I stuttered.

“Hi.” He replied.

It was silent for a moment.

“How are you?” I asked.

“obviously not as good as you.” He replied.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Do you not care that I haven’t been able to eat, sleep or think since you shut me out? For days I freaked out about becoming a father and the one person I wanted to talk to most wasn’t there. We should’ve done this together.”

I opened my mouth to protest but shut it soon after. Tears brimmed in my eyes. Why hadn’t I thought about him in this?

“I – I just,” I began, “I’m sorry.”

“yeah,” He replied, “I’m sorry too.”

 _What?_ I thought.

“I’m sorry that I thought I could deal with you again.”

My eyes widened. The tears were rolling down my cheeks.

“Maybe one day we can be friends again but not now. The wound is too fresh, too painful. Maybe there was a reason we didn’t tell anyone.”

He got up and turned back towards the castle. I watched as he became smaller in the distance.

Ughhhhhhhhh. That couldn’t have gone worse.


	38. Hoping and soon-to-be hangovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scor and Rose try to cope. (short chapter! Sorry!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scor's POV, turns to Rose's later

Not turning back was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I kept my eyes fixed on the warm glow of the castle. I knew I might not have done the right thing, but mistakes had been made, and scars had been left, irreparable.

I was so mad, it felt like my world was crumbling around me. I used to have a beautiful girlfriend. I used to have my best friend. I used to have a reason to get up in the morning. No, Scor. Don’t think like that. I sighed.

I arrived back at the castle, still a bit stunned by what I did. I really hoped that this wouldn’t pull us too far apart. Hoping isn’t believing, though. I walked in through the doors and tried to quietly sneak past the great hall. Sadly, I did not make it in time; Cam caught up with me.

“Hey!” He said, “I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“hi.” I mumbled in reply, in a slightly annoyed tone.

“what’s up?” Cam asked, a bit taken aback.

I rolled my eyes, “I’m just not in the mood to pretend everything’s ok.” I sighed and walked away.

Cam hadn’t bothered to owl me all holidays after he heard about the pregnancy thing. He had completely ignored me. Well, I hadn’t exactly sent an owl to him but, well, just… Maybe I had been a bit harsh but he had gone out with Rose and what did he do with me? Nothing.

Ugh. I was fed up with feeling sorry for myself. It was done. Finished. I had to push the past as far from my mind as possible. Easier said than done.

I got to the Heads’ dorm and climbed through the portrait hole. I took one look at the transfiguration today poster next to the bookshelf and scowled. By then, I had stopped pitying myself. It wasn’t like wishing the past away – that would be stupid – but I was allowed to be miserable. I had constantly been everyone’s go-to guy to vent about their problems to and I was fed the fuck up. Well, I say everyone but I used to have to force the reasons out of Rosie. Rosie. UGH. STOP THINKING ABOUT ROSIE. As I was saying, even though I didn’t want to pity myself, I couldn’t help being a tiny bit miserable from time to time.

I couldn’t decide whether I should go up to my room and have to face the myriad of random items belonging to Rosie or whether I should stay down here and, inevitably, run into the real life Rosie and have to do _more_ talking.

 _Maybe,_ I thought, _I should meet in the middle: go have a shower._

That seemed perfect. Well…

I trudged into the bathroom. My head was thumping; my ears were ringing and my shoulders seemed to be crumbling under the weight of the day. I slowly undressed, stepped into the shower and let the water run over me. I stood still for about 3 minutes before I realised the mistake I made.

I slumped down against the wall, the water slowly _trying_ to wash away my worries. I say trying because it was _clearly_ not working.

 _Why on Earth_ I thought, _did I let her go?!_

I was on the verge of crying by then; I had let go of my best friend. I needed to fix this. But how the _fuck_ would I do that?

ROSE’S POV

I traipsed through the portrait hole. Thank Merlin the next day was a Sunday because I was going to have a soon-to-be hangover the size of Ilevermony (a _very_ big magic school in America) in the morning.

I rushed up to my room to try and find the bottle of firewhiskey I had hidden in there. I looked under my bed, in my wardrobe and behind the bookshelves. Then I remembered going into the room of requirement a couple weeks before term ended and drinking it. Well, I remember mostly the headache, but… oh well.

I flopped on to my bed and sighed. If there was ever a time to drink, it would be now.

I stretched and got up to go to the Gryffindor common room to see if Ruby had anything to drink. Just as I opened the door, I saw Scor move his hand to knock on it.

“Umm” He stuttered, looking into my eyes but swiftly averting his gaze towards the floor, “I know we made mistakes… and I know we can’t go back to being friends straight away… but, would you like to drink with me?” He held up a bottle of firewhiskey. I smiled a sad smile.

“I know we made mistakes, and I know we can’t go back to being friends straight away, but I would love to drink with you.”

I stepped out of my room and followed him into the common room. I looked at him walking several feet in front of me. He was at least 8 inches taller than me, I began to wonder how we didn’t look insane when we kissed. I suppose that no one was there to witness it.

We got to the common room and I opened up the laptop.

“Wha?” Scor asked.

“Sherlock drinking games.”

He looked confused.

I rolled my eyes, “I don’t want to talk and at least I’ll get to watch Sherlock whilst dying on the inside.” I said every word with a sting. I felt a tiny bit bad because I did leave him to protect myself and, to be honest, I didn’t even consider how he was feeling. However, he shattered my heart into a million pieces.

“Ok then.” He replied, getting his muggle phone out and looking up drinking games.

About three episodes later, we were both off our faces drunk and couldn’t tell our surroundings from the backside of a cow.

“He licked his lips! John licked his lips! Driiinnnkkkk!” Scor snickered.

“That wasn’t a rule!!” I half-slurred, half-giggled.

“Since when are you _always_ right?”

“Since I was born!” I was laughing out loud by then.

He started to chuckle, and I leant in. And kissed him. I was lying on top of him within moments. I’m not going to go into too much detail but I woke up the next morning lying next to him, in his bed, naked. *Facepalm*


	39. Heads' dorms and Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some cute Flalbus smut, and a discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> {Okkk soo, this chapter was written for my BEST friend who just had to go to the hospital for an MRI scan. She has been so brave. Love you so much, Floss!}
> 
> Starts off in Flossie's POV, then turns to Rose's and lastly to Al's

{The same night}

“Heyyyy!” I called, walking into the room of requirement.

“Hey Babe!” Ruby called back, laughing.

Al stood up and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. I beamed. Merlin, I knew Scorpius and Rosie were going through a tough time, but I was really really happy.

Cam joined us soon after; he was breathing heavily, as though he had run from somewhere.

“Guys…” He panted, “We need… to do something… about Scor and Rose…”

Ruby raised her eyebrow and laughed, “no shit Sherlock!”

Cam rolled his eyes, and flopped down next to Ruby.

“So…” Al said, “What do we do?”

Eventually we resolved a plan. It wasn’t a great plan. After all, none of us knew they were together until they had broken up. We couldn’t even decide whether we wanted them to get back together or just be on talking terms. The plan was _really_ shit.

 _So basically_ , our plan was just to make them talk. We didn’t know how and we didn’t know when. We just knew we needed to do _something._

After a while, we all got a bit bummed out and decided to pull out the bottle of firewhiskey and begin to play a game. *wink wink*.

“Good morning, Floss.” Al whispered as he rolled over and kissed my cheek. I smiled. Sometimes I still can’t believe that he is that nice to me.

“Morning, Al.” I whispered back.

Cam and Ruby had left at about 1 in the morning with Al’s cloak. I’m fairly sure that they were looking for a place to shag. *Eyeroll*

I sat up and stretched. The [very] early morning light was filtering through the window very pleasantly. No one got shit-faced the night before so the hangover was practically non-existent. Al shortly sat up too. He rubbed his eyes and picked up his glasses.

“Thank Merlin it’s Sunday!” He exclaimed, standing up and pulling on his trousers.

“Why?” I asked.

“So I can spend more time with you.” He replied. I looked at him in disbelief.

“You are… _so_ sweet.”

I stood up, wrapped my hands around his neck and our lips connected.

Merlin, I did not know why, or how, or what made me love him so much, but whatever it was… it did its job _extremely_ well.

About an hour later *wink wink* we emerged from the room of requirement. We started to walk towards the Gryffindor tower, until I reached a realisation.

“No, no, no, no. What’s the time?” I asked.

Al took his arm from around my shoulders and looked at his watch. “About half past six, why?”

“Let’s not go to our common room… there’s gonna be too many eager first years up already reading textbooks or whatever shit we used to do when we were that bright-eyed and not so cynical.” I said.

“Hmm,” Al said, “You’re right, too many loud people. But where can we go? We can’t go back to the Room of requirement because people will see us coming from there.”

“err,” I said, “I don’t know, hmm- Let’s go to Rosie’s!”

That made perfect sense! I knew her password from last term and we could hang out in the common room because there wasn’t an ice-cube’s chance in hell that Rosie would be up before eleven.

We started walking towards the Heads’ dorm. I linked arms with Al and snuggled into his jumper.

“password?” The portrait inquired.

 _Hmm_ , I thought.

“Wrackspurt tails.”

The portrait swung open and we ventured in.

ROSE’S POV

 _Oh fuck_ I thought.

I tried to prise myself from Scor. I couldn’t believe how quickly I had gone from hating his guts to being in bed with him. I have not learnt anything this last year. Like, nothing. It was about 9 months ago that I was in this position but without the history. I was drinking then. And I was drinking now. Maybe, just maybe, drinking isn’t a very good thing for me.

Scor began to stir.

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck._ I really did not want to face up to the consequences. I did not want to have to admit that Scorpius made me forget why I was mad at him, what he did and make me really really miss him.

“Rosie…” Scor mumbled.

“Shit” I muttered under my breath.

Scor sat up slowly as I got out of the bed.

“Oh shit.” He said, quite audibly.

“I’m going to go shower. Talk later. No one needs to know.” I spat.

I turned on my heel and walked out – naked.

I stepped out into the hallway only to see Al’s messy hair sticking out from behind the settee.

I dashed back into Scor’s room.

“What the fuck, Rosie?” He asked.

“AL AND FLOSSIE” I hissed, “ARE OUT THERE.”

AL’S POV

“did you hear something?” I asked Flossie, turning round looking at Scor’s bedroom door.

“Yeah,” She said, confused.

“Shall we-” I started.

“Go investigate…” She finished, grinning.

We walked up to Scor’s room and were about to knock until we heard whispers.

I turned the door handle and opened the door.

“WHAT THE FUCK, AL?” Rosie screeched.

Flossie started giggling uncontrollably as I turned around.

“LEAVE!!” Shouted Scor and Rose, in perfect unison.


	40. Questions and Quandaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some cute flalbus drabble  
> Rose and Scor get real

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starts with Scor's POV, changes around a bit.  
> It's a rly rly short chapter! Sorry!

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I said pacing up and down my room. By this time, I was clothed, and so was Rosie.

“What the fuck are we going to do?” Rosie whispered whilst lying, curled up, on my bed. That made me worried; she _never_ whispered. Rosie is loud and confident. For her to whisper, something bad must’ve happened. And something bad _did_ happen.

I sighed and flopped down on to the bed next to Rosie. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

We just lay there, silently, for a while. We had heard Flalbus (Flossie and Al’s ship name) leave through the portrait hole.

I heard Rosie sniffling. That made my already broken heart shatter into a million more pieces. I rolled over and put my arm around her.

 _Wait_ I thought, _was this too, err, y’know?!?!_

My eyes widened. _Shit, shit, SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!!_

I had gone too far. Had I just ruined every chance of ever reconnecting with Rosie – romantically or platonically?

ROSE’S POV

I felt his arm hold me. I couldn’t tell whether this was crossing boundaries or just friendly consoling. Whatever it was, it felt kind of funny. I don’t know how to explain it; it was just a feeling, y’know?

Anyway, I could tell that he was freaking out a little inside. I gave a small smile and whispered in his ear “Don’t worry, it’s fine.”

I leant into his hug and remembered back to the days where we could just do that. Hug, I mean. I remember when we could have tickle fights on the couch; when we would have real fights that would always end with him coming up to me saying he was sorry and when we could laugh for hours on end about nothing in particular. It may have been only weeks, but it felt like lifetimes.

I rolled over so that I was facing him. I stared into his steely, grey, Malfoy eyes. Today they looked red and sore, as if he had been crying. That’s what a lot of people had been doing lately.

“You know when you said that you loved me?” He asked, shakily, “Did you mean it?”

“I meant every word.” I replied. I couldn’t think of what else to say to him. I loved him and I knew a part of me always would. But nostalgia is not something to long for. It is something that can tear you up inside and twist and pull your emotions until they are no longer recognisable as your own. “I really do love you…” I managed to choke out.

“Then why did you leave?” He followed up, solemnly.

“It’s because of that. I thought you’d be able to have a better life if you didn’t have the burden of a kid and a baby mama in it.”

“But why did you think that I wouldn’t want a kid, or to stay by you?”

“I don’t know!” I sighed, “I didn’t know anything at that time! I was blinded by the possibility of having to care for something a million times more helpless than myself when I was still getting drunk on firewhiskey every Friday or so…” Tears began to stream down my face. It all began to feel very real. I had abandoned my best friend so to shut myself out from the world when maybe he was what I needed. I hadn’t considered how he was feeling. That hit me hardest; I loved him more than humanly possible but for some inane reason, I thought he would leave me so I decided to pre-emptively shut things down.

He shuffled and that’s when I was sure that he was gonna leave. He had heard enough. He hated every part of me, from my curly, red, Weasley hair to my toes. Just as I had accepted my fate, Scor pulled me closer and kissed me. On the lips. Like we used to. Merlin. I was not expecting that.

AL’S POV

Flossie and I rushed out of the Heads’ dorm laughing so hard. I honestly can’t believe that they are so inclined towards each other that they weren’t physically able to keep their hands off one another. To be honest, when I heard that Scor _almost_ knocked Rosie up, I was livid. I was ready to kill Scor in Hogsmeade. In a way, I was pretty luck that Flossie kept me away. After a few days, I was fine and I didn’t blame Scor anymore, I think that it was just that I couldn’t imagine Rosie fucking some guy. Yes, Scor isn’t just some guy but… you know what I mean.

"I wonder if they'll get back together..." Flossie said, absentmindedly.

"I don't know..." I replied, "I hope so, they were a lot happier then."

We got back to the Gryffindor dorms at about quarter to eight. The portrait door swung open and Flossie and I stepped into the common room.

I smiled and took Floss by the hand.

“What are you doing?” She half-smiled, half-laughed.

I led her up to the seventh year boys’ dorm and kissed her on the lips.

“I love you Flossie.” I whispered.

She linked the hands around my neck and kissed me back. “I love you too.”

“Please promise me,” I began, “Please don’t leave me if you’re in trouble. I want to be there.”

“Promise.” She replied, linking one of her pinkies with mine.


	41. Strategies and snitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rose's Pov   
> Changes later on

Well, long story short, Scor and I may or may not have ended up having teary, _‘I love you’_ sex. We did.

I knew that I had to define what Scor and I now were but it was just too hard. We were not friends with benefits cos that would imply that we did not have any feelings for each other. And we did. Well, at least I did.

I lay in his bed, next to him, both of us staring up at the ceiling. I was confused. He was confused. At that time, many people were confused. I mean, Al and Flossie had just gotten used to the idea that we used to date and then broke up without anyone knowing. And then they had to walk in on us and mess this whole balance up. Well, I say balance but this whole situation is about as balanced as James Madison was when Thomas Jefferson arrived back in the USA after the revolution. I.e. Not balanced _at all_.

“Um.” Scor eventually stuttered, trying to break the unbearable silence.

“So…” I said in return.

“Well…” He replied.

“Err” I said in response. For two members of the debate society, we knew too many time-fillers.

“We seem incapable of, well, being apart.” Scor stated.

“yet we seem incapable of having a normal relationship.” I sighed.

“We’ve never tried a _‘normal’_ relationship…”

“you know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” He sighed, “I suppose.”

We lay in silence for while after. Neither of us wanted to be alone, yet neither of us knew what to say.

I think that, just maybe, I wanted him to ask for me to stay. But since he had the emotional range of a teaspoon, I thought that maybe I should woman up and start chasing what I want. And y’know what? I learnt that from Scor.

I sighed, and started to give myself a mental pep-talk.

Deep breath. “Isthereanywayyouwouldliketotryandhaveanormalrelationshipwithmelikebeingabletotellpeopleandshit?”

Woah.

“What?” Scor said, looking confused.

I took another deep breath. “Is there any way you would like to try and have a normal relationship with me – like being able to tell people and shit?”

Scor looked slightly taken aback by that, but he smiled, and with that I knew that Scorose was once more.

He grinned his stupid grin and took my face in his hands. Our foreheads rested against each other’s. I was really happy. The previous weeks of turmoil had all seemed to be forgotten in that one action.

About 15 minutes later, Scor and I had emerged from the heads’ dorm. Hand in hand. Yes! Hand in hand! In public. That was new territory, and it was scary. We made a plan *kinda* to let people work it out for themselves. We were going to ease them into it. This was the plan:

WEEK ONE: Link arms, hold hands, y’know… that sort of shit.

WEEK TWO: piggy back rides, maybe public hugs

WEEK THREE: small pecks on the cheeks, maybe a kiss on the lips.

WEEK FOUR: Y’know, full-on make out sessions.

That was the plan. Ask _Scorpius_ as to why it did not work out that way.

SCOR’S POV

The following Saturday was the big Ravenclaw/Slytherin game and I was nervous because I was forced to be reserve seeker. Why, I will never know. I am a chaser. I do not seek. But apparently Linnett (our usual seeker) was ill and the reserve was, um, I don’t even know. To be honest, I wasn’t too bothered by the prospect of being seeker. I mean, I was just a bit nervous, that’s all.

By this time, Flossie, Al, Cam and Ruby knew about the reconciliation, no one else though.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to the sound of my girlfriend *blushes* playing the piano in the other room. I smiled to myself. The music stopped, and I heard footsteps and braced myself.

“Wwwwaaaaaakkkkkeeeeee upppppppppp!” Rosie shouted.

I pulled the covers over my head and moaned into my duvet. I could not be arsed to play quidditch today.

Rosie then proceeded to conjure a glass of icy water and very slowly pour it over my head. Very slowly.

“Fuck off” I moaned into my pillow.

“You gotta get up; it’s almost 8”

 _Shit_ I thought _Maybe I didn’t wake up that early_.

I practically leapt out of bed and began to get my quidditch gear on.

Rosie wolf-whistled.

“Perv” I joked.

She raised her eyebrow and said “I’m your girlfriend.”

“Touché.” I laughed.

It was raining. Like really hard. It was the type of rain where the teachers would cancel sports day. I’ve read too many cheesy teen novels for my own good.

I was hovering in the far end of the quidditch pitch, scanning for any sign of the snitch.

I could see the Slytherin keeper missing the quaffle going through her hoops by centimetres. I smirked. I’m a terrible loser. But I’m an even worse winner.

The score was even at 2 hours into the game. I missed playing chaser; it was much more exciting than trying to find a bloody golf-ball sized flying thing. Also, I would’ve scored like 5 more goals if I was playing.

I was getting crabby. That’s when I saw a flash of gold flutter behind the Slytherin chaser’s ear. I darted forward, arm outstretched. However, I wasn’t the only one with that idea; Valkanova, the Slytherin seeker, shot forward as well. Because, y’know, I don’t like admitting that someone may be just as good as me at anything, I maintain that she was copying my actions. So, I dipped and she follows. I could see the snitch just above me, so I pull myself up and reach as far as I can. My fingers wrapped around the golden snitch and I could feel the stress leaving my shoulders.

As the Ravenclaw stands started to erupt with cheers and whistles, I flew over to the part of the stands where my friends (and my girlfriend) were sitting. Rosie stands up and I take her face in my hands and, well, kissed her. It was only week two and I had fucked up the plan.

Everyone went quiet and the two of us pulled away and turned red. I could see Cam and Ruby just laughing at our embarrassment and Al and Flossie both looking at us with that ‘ _Really?_ ’ look.

Rosie was a bit put off by that but, to be honest, I couldn’t care less because now I didn’t have to hide my feelings.


	42. Flalbus and family feuds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so, Sheeeeeee's back.... My awesome best friend, Dobby_is_the_father, wrote this chapter (she's a big flalbus shipper). I wrote an *amazing* chapter on her Fabulicious Marauders fic Life before death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flossies PoV unless stated

Flossie's POV  
Scor and Rosie walked back from the Quidditch pitch hand in hand, both blushing furiously. Al and I watched them from a few steps behind, both slightly in awe and shock. As Rosie leant over to rest her head on Scor's shoulder, I couldn't help but smile. I nudged Al with my elbow.

"I told you they'd be together again." I grinned.

"They really are TOO cute." He sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. I mimicked Rosie's movements, leaning into Al's body. He wrapped a comforting arm around me, and leant down to kiss the top of my head. I sighed in contentment, and we continued walking back up to the castle, at a slightly slower pace than before. As Rosie and Scor got lost in the enthusiastic gaggle of Ravenclaw and Slytherin Quidditch supporters, Al leaned down to murmur in my ear.

"Let's get out of here." He whispered excitedly. I frowned back at him, smiling through my confusion, as he grabbed me by the hand and lead me through the crowds. We entered the castle through a back entrance, and before we could get much further than a secluded corridor, he pushed me back up against a wall, kissing me furiously.

"Fucking hell, Al!" I murmured between kisses. "What's happened to you?" He pulled away, smiling ecstatically.

"I don't know." He smiled wildly and kissed me again. We made out heatedly for a good few minutes, before his hands began to venture towards the hem of my shirt, inching it up ever so slightly.

"Not here, Al!" I laughed, pushing him away. Then it was my turn to grab his hand, as we ran hurriedly up to the Room of Requirement. Pacing in front of the door seemed a pointless and dull task, and when the Room finally revealed itself, we tumbled inside, limbs tangled together in our passionate embrace.

It took a while, but we eventually regained some self-control (although our shirts may or may not have been lying discarded on the floor). We snuggled together on the sofa, his arms wrapped around me, my head on his chest. I could hear his steady heartbeat, and it was strangely grounding.

"That was… intense." I laughed. He smiled.

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. You were just sort of… sitting there the entire match, and Merlin, you looked so fucking amazing, and then I could see that maybe you felt left out because Rosie and Scor were being so public…" he trailed off and shrugged.

"You are insanely perfect." I shake my head incredulously, and kiss him briefly, before resting my head back on his chest.

"I love it in here." He mumbled, almost to himself. I raised my head to look at him.

"Why?" I asked.

"Memories." He said simply.

"Yeah." I replied, wistfully. "We were in here when you first told me you loved me." I reminisced fondly.

"I remember." He chuckled softly. "You'd just snogged me in front of half of Gryffindor House, and we ran down here and just sort of…"

"Made out for a good couple of hours?" I laughed.

"Well, that's what I remember." He said, fingers running gently through my hair. "We were in here when I first realised I loved you as well." He looked a little sheepish.

"Oh, yeah?" I suppressed a smile.

"Yeah. It was your fourteenth birthday. We were all in here, like we are every birthday, and we had butterbeer rather than firewhiskey, but we still played drinking games. And I remember Rosie trying to make you kiss Cam, and you refused. Point blank. He was Ruby's guy, you said. And besides, you had feelings for someone else. And I remember thinking, hoping, that maybe it was me you had feelings for. And I remember lying awake that night thinking about you, and telling myself that I couldn't love you because we were friends, and nothing else. But it never did stop me from loving you." He blushed and tries to hide his face. I pushed his hands away and held his face in my hands. Not quite knowing what to say yet, I simply kissed him, softly, sweetly, deeply. He sighed contentedly as I pulled away.

"How long have you known you loved me?" He asked tentatively.

"An embarrassingly long time. Ever since we became friends, I wanted more, but I didn't think that was what you wanted, so I swallowed my feelings and tried to move on. But I couldn't, Al, I just couldn't. I loved you too much to let go. And - and I was in the library, d'you remember, the day we got together? And Zambini approached me and tried to kiss me, and there was just nothing there, you know? And I realised that the reason there was nothing there is because I was still hung up over you. I have always been hung up over you."

"And I sure as hell hope you always will be." He smiled. "Have you really loved me that long?" He asked.

"Really, truly." I replied. He nuzzled my nose.

"Florence?" I smiled at his use my his full name.

"Yes, Albus?"

"I love you." Those words. Those three magical words. And I knew that I could never let him go.

"I love you too, Al."

  
Rose's POV  
Planning the Battle of Hogwarts anniversary ball was no easy task. There are yearly commemorations, but once every four years, a ball is held in honour of those who died. It's always rather sombre affair, although Professor McGonagall is always eager to reflect on the celebratory elements of it, and ensures that we remember the many people who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the wizarding world, many of whom were once students of McGonagall herself.

Ugh. I sounded like a fucking History of Magic textbook.

It was all these hours of planning, of poster designing and food planning and invite writing and it was driving both me and Scor absolutely fucking insane. After a while I collapsed back, massaging my sore wrist, which was beginning to cramp from writing so much. Scor continued working. I noticed then that he hadn't said much, and seemed to be maintaining an expressionless face, and had been working almost clockwork-fashion, his movements rhythmical and perfectly timed.

"Scor…" I began, tentatively.

"What?" He snapped, irritably.

"I… are you okay? You've hardly said anything and -"

"Of course I'm not fucking okay!" He snarled. "I'm celebrating the bloody anniversary of my grandfather's life sentence in Azkaban, and the bloody anniversary of my family being treated like shit!" He jumped up, threw down his quill and stormed off upstairs. I followed him, calling for him to wait, but before I could get to him, he slammed the door of his room in my face.

"Scor!" I cried, banging on the door with a frail fist. "Please, just let me in! Let me help!"

"No! Your family is made up of Weasleys and Potters, the fucking heroes of the fucking war. You can't help me! Go. The fuck. Away." My breath caught in my chest. That stung.

"I'm not leaving you." I whispered, and sink down until I'm sitting, my back against the door. After a while, I heard him do the same, heard the muffled hiss of "shit!" as he banged his head on the door. It was comforting, knowing he was on the other side of the door.

"I'm sorry, Scor." I murmured. "I should've realised. I should've helped, I should've -"

"No. It's my fault. I should've said something earlier." He mumbled, voice thick with tears. It broke my heart to hear him in such pain.

"I love you, Scor." I whispered, helplessly. I heard him move, and quickly stood up. The door opened, and I saw him, tall stance disappeared in place of a crumpled, broken figure who hardly resembled my boyfriend. He collapsed into my arms, sobs wracking his body. Through his tears, he managed to form a few vaguely coherent words.

"I love you too, Rosie." He eventually pulled away, and pressed his lips firmly to mine.

"Please, never leave me." He whispered, in a soft and terrified tone. "I'm begging you."

"Never." I murmured against his lips.


	43. Stress revelations and Parental Non-chalance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this is a VERY long chapter -- In it we see some of Scor's anxieties fleshed out and how he copes with the Celebration ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starts off in Scor's Pov  
> Changes around A LOT

Rosie was curled up with her head resting on my chest. She was fast asleep. I wasn’t even close.

Thoughts and thinking all became too difficult to deal with in that moment. My family had killed people. They had watched people be tortured and they did _nothing_. It’s harder than you would think to have to walk around balancing the checkered legacy of the Malfoys on your shoulders.

I manoeuvred my way out of bed, trying not to disturb Rosie. I succeeded.

I rushed to the bathroom and shut the door. My breathing was so heavy and erratic that I began to think I was going to vomit. I keeled over the toilet and started retching.

 _Oh Merlin. Oh merlin. Oh merlin._ I thought, I was, and am, absolutely fucking terrified of vomiting.

My breathing slowed down a bit and I began calm down.

Sometimes this happened. I’d get overwhelmed and I’d vomit (or at least start gagging). To be honest, I was expecting this; every year on May 2nd I would ‘conveniently’ be absent from lessons. Luckily, the nurse would always give me a note due to the (stress-) vomiting. I think the only thing that stopped me this time from actually throwing up was the fact that Rosie was in my bed, sleeping deeply after trying to convince me that everything was okay.

I stood up and shut my eyes. I _knew_ it wasn’t my fault. I _knew_ I had nothing to do with them. But I was still a Malfoy and I still felt guilty.

I don’t think Rose knew what it was like. I wanted to believe that she understood me, but part of me knew that she never would. After all, May 2nd is a celebration to her.

I turned on the shower and began to undress. I stepped into the shower and let the water cascade down my back. It felt nice. My body was burning up (not my temperature, just my general mood.). The water cooled it down slightly. The shower was my sanctuary. It always has been. The last time the stress affected me like that was when I thought Rose was pregnant. The main reason I didn’t reply to anyone was because I thought I had lost Rose and that was making me crabby and _very_ sick. For instance, this would happen every day at least once during the morning and several times during the night.

I stepped out on to the bath mat and grabbed a towel. I pulled up my boxers and traipsed back to my room.

The shower did me good. I climbed back into bed and I would have fallen asleep quickly if this conversation didn’t happen.

“Where were you?” She mumbled, half-asleep and snuggling into my torso.

“Just taking a shower – I couldn’t sleep.” I whispered.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “You were sick again, weren’t you?” She said, sounding concerned.

I was confused. “How did you-” I started.

Rosie smiled sadly. “I notice way more than you think, Scorpius.”

I shivered at her use of my full name. I still hadn’t gotten over the fact that we were an ‘item’.

“Every year on May 2nd you would be ill. And Cam would always say that you were up all night vomiting. Common sense really.”

I was stunned, “you noticed?”

“Of course I did. You’re worth noticing.”

I didn’t like crying, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t like full on crying, it was just tears falling.

I pulled her into a hug, and held her tight. Yes, she may not have been able to get exactly what I felt, but she was trying her hardest. And that was more than I could ever wish for.

We lay in bed, holding each other for a while, not talking.

“Am I-” I stuttered, “Am I the only one?”

I thought that Rosie would need me to explain. She didn’t. She was perfect.

“No. Stress always affects people differently. I shut people out and go silent for hours on end. Al stress eats. Ruby gets chatty. Cam spends hours on the quidditch pitch and Flossie gets emotional and moody.”

“but they don’t vomit.”

“no, they don’t. But no one else in the group would break up with someone because they were pregnant. No one else would run away without any warning because of stress alone. I have spent days not talking to people because everything felt like too much. I promise you that you are not alone.”

“how do you know?” I whispered.

Rosie produced a sad smile, “I don’t, but you have to trust me.”

I stared into her glittering eyes. “okay.” I said, “I trust you.” Because, for once, I actually could trust someone.

AL’S POV

It was the afternoon before the Victory ball. Professor McGonagall required mine and Lily’s presence at the ball as we were spawn of Harry potter. James and my parents were coming too. So were Uncle Ron and Auntie Hermione. Hugo and Rosie were also required.

I was in Scor’s bedroom, doing up the buttons on my shirt when he burst through the door, wearing only a towel to cover up.

“Well I am royally fucked.” He moaned, flopping down on his bed.

“Yes.” I replied.

“What? You haven’t even heard my reasoning yet.”

“I know, but if u don’t shut your legs I will go blind and then I won’t be able to do your history of magic course work.”

He sat up, glared at me, and then smirked. “Well, that’s not what your cousin says.”

I pretended to gag. He grinned.

“But that brings me to why I am actually screwed: I’m gonna have to dance with Rose tonight.”

“Mate, I’ve seen you dance with her before. You look surprisingly graceful, y’know, considering the _massive_ height difference.” I ‘reassured’ nonchalantly.

“that’s not the problem.” Scor said, “I am going to have to dance with Rose in front of her parents. As her boyfriend.”

I began to laugh. “You definitely are fucked.”

“uuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh” He moaned as he flopped on the bed again.

“You know that uncle Ron will kill you, right?” I said.

“We’re just gonna have to hope that something changes in his, well, personality… ugh…”

I started to chuckle, “lol.”

FLOSSIE’S POV

I was standing in Rosie’s bedroom, attempting to do my make up when Rosie burst in, wearing only a towel. Do you think she knew that I knew she was in the shower with Scor? I don’t think so.

But anyway, she was moaning about having to introduce Scor to her parents.

“They’ve met him.” I would try and reassure her with.

“Yes but Dad is insane.”

“point accepted.”

We gossiped for a while before Ruby joined us after quidditch practice.

“Sup bitches,” She said, flopping on to my bed.

“hey,” Rosie replied, “what dress are you wearing?”

“I’ll just go to the bathroom and put it on.”

Ugh, my dress’s zip was in a really awkward position so I got Rosie to do it up.

She walked over to me smiling, “you know you could just cut out the middle man?”

“What?” I replied, confused.

“Well, I’m doing this zip up only for Al to, presumably, undo it later. Why don’t you two just satisfy your _needs_ now and then do your dress up.” She wiggled her eyebrows. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“how about you just do my zip up now and I won’t tell your parents about the pregnancy scare?”

She walked up to me and began to zip my dress. “If you mention that, I will actually avada you.”

“Ok…”

I was wearing a long, strapless, dark red dress. It fell to the floor gracefully. I was going to wear black to show mourning but Al convinced me that this was a celebration rather than a memorial.

Rosie had left by then and Al had come in.

“Hi…” He said, walking up to me.

“Hey,” I replied, taking his face in my hands and planting a kiss on his lips.

Al grinned and I giggled.

I sat down on Rosie’s bed and put on my shoes. They were high-heeled and black. They were very smexy – if I say so myself.

Al put his arm around my waist and we walked out.

ROSE’S POV

Ruby walked out of the bathroom in a mint green, summery dress. She looked beautiful.

“oh Merlin, Ruby! You look absolutely stunning.”

“Thank you!” She replied, hugging me, “you too!”

“Thanks!”

I was wearing a short, black dress with lacy sleeves. It was really pretty.

Cam and Al came out of Scor’s room. Al headed straight to my room where Floss was residing and Cam put his arm around Ruby’s shoulders and they walked away.

I knocked on Scor’s door.

“Come in.” He replied, chirpier than I expected.

“Scor…” I said, kind of confused as to the unexpected mood.

“hey!” He said, walking over to me and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

He was fiddling with his cufflinks and it was really annoying me. “Let me do it.”

“thank you…” He said, smiling stupidly, “You look really, _really_ good.”

“Thank you. So do you.” He was wearing black dress robes and his hair was kinda, I don’t know, perfect? Yeah, perfect.

My hair was down to my waist and really wavy. I had used copious amounts of sleak-eazy hair potion to get it to look this way.

Eventually, after a bit of snogging, we saw the time and decided to make our way down to the Great Hall.

“Ok, so…” I started, “We’re gonna need a game plan. Dad is going to have a fit when we tell him that we’re an item.”

“Ah, yes. Al warned me about that.” He replied.

“So… I’m thinking we say hi from the very beginning and warm up to them. But by no means mention the relationship ‘til at least half nine or when they are 2 drinks in.”

“Okay, I got it. No mentioning of us as a couple, but do be polite and kind as to make them tolerate me.”

“Perfect.” I said, grinning.

We walked into the Great hall arm in arm. The dancing had already started. I saw Al and Flossie swaying side to side, Flossie’s head resting on Al’s shoulder. Al was about 5 feet 11 inches – so pretty tall and Flossie was about 5 feet 8 inches – so pretty tall. They looked unbelievably cute together. Like so goals it hurt.

The decorations were beautiful. I kept on looking over at Scor to see if he showed any sign of stress or guilt. He looked happy. I really hadn’t known what had happened, so, naturally, I had to ask.

“Ok,” I said, during an upbeat number by the band, “what has made you so happy?”

Scor chuckled and pulled me closer, “maybe I realised that since this day meant so much to you and your family in the present, I should stop thinking about what this day meant for my family in the past.”

I smiled, “that’s a good attitude to have.”

“And anyway,” He continued, “you look _really_ hot.”

I smirked, “well, if tonight goes well… y’know what I mean…”

I took him by the hand and I lead him to the dance floor.

Scor was really tall at this point – like 6 feet 2 inches. Myself, not so tall; I am about 5 feet 5 inches. People say it’s cute. Really, it’s just inconvenient. Well, It’s kinda cute…

After a while of dancing, my feet began to hurt from the _very_ impractical, _very_ high, black heels I was wearing.

We sat down on the chairs and smiled at each other. The night was going really well. That is until Mum and Dad walked up to us. To be honest this was all my fault.

So basically, Scor stood up to shake hands with my parents and I quickly followed suit but instead hugged them.

We exchanged the usual pleasantries, blah blah blah. Then I decided to make everything awkward.

“Mum, dad,” I said, not so calmly, “I’m dating Scorpius Malfoy and you can’t do anything about it because I love him.”

Scor’s eyes widened and his cheeks went red. I could see the fear in his eyes.

Dad was acting so… calm? The first thing he said was “Harry owes me 20 galleons – that’ll teach him to bet on my daughter’s love life.” That made me laugh. Mainly the fact that Dad was expecting this. The second thing he said was “As long as you are happy” And then he smiled… as if to say he approved.

I was stunned.

After a while of explaining everything ( _Not the pregnancy thingy_ ), Mum and Dad decided it was best if they made their way home. So we said our goodbyes and walked over to the rest of the group.

“So the weirdest thing just happened…” Scor started

“Dad didn’t bat an eyelid when we told him about the relationship.” I finished.

Al was _really_ surprised. Then we started to discuss ideas of what might’ve happened to spark that. My favourite theory was that Dad was bitten by a baby basilisk and momentarily lost his memory, so mum retold his whole life story but left out the parts of Draco Malfoy. I know we are childish but it’s fun.

The clock eventually struck twelve and everyone had to go back to their dorms. Scor and I had to help tidy up a bit so we didn’t get back to our dorms ‘til later.

It was about quarter to one in the morning and Scor and I were making out like horny teenagers. Oh yeah, it’s because we were ones. I pulled off Scor’s robes and started to unbutton his shirt. I grinned at the sight of his quidditch- toned abs. I was punching above my weight and I knew it. But that didn’t mean I was wrong to do so.

SCOR’S POV

Rosie and I were snogging like mad, we had stopped taking in our surroundings. It was perfect. She began to undress me so I followed suit. She was perfect. Her hair fell perfectly, even when she moaned about it being too frizzy or crazy – that’s when I liked it most. She sometimes worried about being too thin or too fat. To me, she could never be anything but perfect. In a relationship, some people say there are reachers and settlers. There is not a chance in hell that I am the settler. Every day I thank merlin that she went for someone like me, I always feel like she’s out of my league (because she is). But I’m not forcing her to stay with me. Merlin, I love her so much. It’s crazy.


	44. Job-based Gabbling and Going away Goodbyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know I'm not the most talkative poster but I am on the penultimate chapter of my fic. I may write a sequel, I dont really know. I am gonna write an epilogue and see where it goes.  
> -Red XX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starts off in Scor's PoV

May went _very quickly_. Sooner than I could imagine, everyone was in full on study mode. Everyone was stressed. Ruby raised her wpm count (words per minute count) by at least 100. Cam spent wayyy too long on the quidditch pitch, especially since he needed to study. Flossie would act like nothing was wrong for days on end and then you would find her in the library crying quietly behind her book. Rosie wasn’t that stressed at all. It was really weird. To be honest, I wasn’t very stressed at all either. Until…

It was the night before our _last_ (YASS) exam. It was a written defence against the dark arts one and Rose was starting to stress.

“Ugh.” I moaned as I walked down the stairs into the common room, carrying several text books.

Rosie was in sweats and her notes were sprawled out all over the coffee table.

I sat down on the sofa, next to where Rosie was.

She had turned the music up to full-blast. It’s what she does when she needs to concentrate. Today it was the soundtrack to Hamilton.

“Rosie!” I shouted.

She didn’t bat an eyelid.

“Rosie!” I shouted louder.

“What?!” She shouted back.

I rolled my eyes, waved my wand and the music’s volume lowered.

“What do you want?” She hissed. I had to stop myself from smirking.

“I want you to relax…” I said, pulling her towards me.

“I know, I know. I just need to feel confident for tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay…” I said, understanding what she meant. Then I got an idea, “Lemme test you and for every 5 questions you get right, we add 5 minutes on the end for-”

“Sex” Rosie exclaimed.

I chuckled, “I was gonna say Sherlock, but I like this idea _way_ more…”

At about 11, we had ditched the studying all together.

She was pulling at the hem of my quidditch shirt as I rested my hands on her waist. We kinda rolled on to my bed in a frenzy of kissing and undressing It wasn’t our most _beautiful_ work, but I did not mind.

I stared into her blue, sparkling eyes. “I love you, Rosie. You’re gonna do great on this test.”

She looked back into my eyes and gave me a smile. “I love you too, but this test is _defence against the dark arts_. It means more than that random O in ancient runes.”

“I know, baby, I know.” I said, “But you, of _all_ people, will ace that test. You have to trust me.”

Rose snuggled into me and mumbled into my chest “Ok, I do.”

We fell asleep soon after that, holding each other close, as if to say we were gonna get through this last test together.

As I said, I wasn’t really stressed about the NEWTs, but this last test got me. It marked the end of the seven years I had spent constantly trying to better Rose. And I was scared; my future was still so cloudy and uncertain.

* * *

“Okay,” Rose started, as we were walking towards the quidditch pitch, “That test was easy as fuck”.

Her, Flossie and Ruby collapsed on the grass.

“Maybe for you…” Cam grumbled.

“Awww” Ruby cooed, “Well at least you don’t really need to know the difference between inferi and ghosts in your future profession.”

“Yeah, I suppose quidditch players don’t often find themselves in that position. But, for the record, ghosts are transparent and inferi aren't.”

Flossie went “wow.”. Rosie let out a huge laugh and Ruby just gave Cam a kiss on the cheek.

“I bet you’re over the moon to be playing for the Sweetwater All-Stars.” Al said.

“yeah, I am.” Cam replied, “Texas is a bit far though.”

Ruby smiled sadly.

“I still don’t have an idea of what I’m gonna do…” I said, awkwardly.

“Err, well,” Flossie said, “I’m starting a course at St Mungo’s. You could always join me…”

“I’m going to get a degree in acting at the muggle university called the ‘Royal academy of dramatic arts” Said Ruby.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna start training to become an auror.” I pondered

“Wow. That’ll be weird – a Malfoy, as an auror” Cam Laughed

Al was next. “I got a job with the prophet writing about the new discoveries in science, herbology and zoology.”

Then it got to Rosie, “Well,” She started “I wasn’t going to tell any of you this until graduation but, ok, here I go: I’m going to Australia.”

“WHAT?” Flossie practically screamed.

Everything seemed to go blurry and muffled.

“I-I-I’m just going to the toilet.” I gasped, trying to act as normal as possible.

ROSES POV

That night was rough. I didn’t want to tell him that I was going to train to be an auror as well. Mainly because I couldn’t bring him into the mix when I was still so unsure. All I knew was that, though I may have seemed happy, I needed a new start. I needed a start where no one knew me. And I knew the next stage of my life would be stressful and I would shut him out

I apologized to Scor several times but he was more distant than ever. Every day I would go up to his door and wait for him to come out so he would _have_ to talk to me. Yeah, no, he wouldn’t look me in the eye. It was nothing for weeks on end. It was torture, but the thought of it all being over in a month or two was good enough to get me through it.

Graduation was the hardest day to survive through. Scor was valedictorian so he got to give the speech. It was the speech I had been building up to writing my whole Hogwarts career but his grade point average was 0.00000000001 points above mine because I missed one mark in one muggle studies test once.

But that wasn’t the point I am making. His speech was perfect. It went like this:

“Hi Everyone: Students, Parents, Faculty,  
This speech is going to be of the short and sweet variety, however I do have several messages. Most of them I’m sure you could not care less about but since I made valedictorian and none of you did, I’m gonna go through with it anyway.” Everyone laughed, “First of all, I just want to tell everybody to celebrate, don’t commiserate. This isn’t the end of a chapter, it’s the start of a new one. Anything can happen. And no one here can do anything to stop you from succeeding in life. Yes, they may have made you happy at one point but if they’re hurting you now, they’re not worth it.” _Ouch,_ I thought, _that hurt._

“Saying that,” He continued, “I think forgiveness is more important than anything else. People get scared, and people run away. And people lie and forget about promises. But none of that is any of your fault’s.”

 _He was right,_ I thought _It was my fault._

Scor carried on, “But although you may be miserable, or sad or just a bit *hmm*, remember that the person who may have wronged you is always a person with feelings and in most situations, they are thinking about your needs first.”

I needed to talk to him after the speech. Tears were silently falling down my face.

“But after that miserable topic, I’ll leave you on a high note. WE SURVIVED!”

And with that, he stepped off of the stage.

An hour later, everyone was dancing in the great hall.

Flossie was smiling wider than ever before, Al was looking at her with the largest amount of trust and loving that I have seen before.

Ruby was almost crying because she was laughing so hard and Cam was _actually_ crying because of it.

I say everyone. I mean everyone but me and Scor.

I walked up to him, very nervous.

“Hi…” I managed to muster up the courage to say.

“Hello.” He replied, looking at his feet.

“I – um – I loved your speech. It was very… moving.”

“I just wanted to say that it’s okay that you are leaving. I know you don’t need my permission but I just want you to be happy.”

“And me, you” I chimed in. “You do realise that I’m doing this _because_ I love you. I’m gonna get real stressed and isolating. I want you to find a nice girl and be happy and not have to worry about me all the time.”

“Y’know” Scor started, “I love you. And I’m going to love you for all of eternity. But if this is meant to be, it will be.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’ll see you around, Malfoy” I said, shakily, tears forming in my eyes.

“Have a good one, Weasley.” He replied, walking away and turning the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to check out the epilogue


	45. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys, So... this is the last chapter. It takes place 2 years after graduation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Completely Rose's PoV - Just like the beginning of the story.

_2 YEARS LATER…_

“Yes, Daddy. I will be safe.” I rolled my eyes. Dad was acting like I hadn’t been moved around before.

“Don’t blame me, you’d know what it’s like if you had children.” He chuckled.

“I suppose…” I smiled.

I picked up my suitcase and hugged him tight.

“Okay,” he said, “Are you sure you have everything set up?”

“No.” I said, sarcastically, “I’m planning on sleeping in an ally way on top of a door with a sheet of cardboard as a duvet.”

“No one is doing that!” My mum’s voice called out from the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes, “Okay, I have everything set up, a flat, a phone number, you name it, I’ve got it. Why are you being so anal?”

“Well, I got it when you wanted to move to Australia, after all their auror training is miles better than ours but I always imagined you would come back to the UK eventually.” Dad said.

I sighed, “I told you I wasn’t coming back.”

He looked at his feet, “I know, I understand. But first it was Australia, then Columbia, Düsseldorf, Greece, Kansas and Thailand. I thought that maybe you’d like to spend some time with the rest of the family.”

I rolled my eyes. I loved my family but I don’t know whether I _liked_ them.

“I am not like the rest of the Weasleys. I don’t _want_ to spend time with you. I barely talk to Al anymore.” I was getting agitated, “And you _know_ why that is…”

Dad pursed his lips. “I love you, Rosie. Have fun in Rome.”. He kissed my forehead.

I stepped into the fireplace, “I’m not going there to be having fun, I’m going there to work.”

Quickly after I said that the flames engulfed me.

* * *

I was standing in line for the bakery. It was taking ages. But that just meant more time to daydream.

I loved living in Italy. The food. The weather. The culture. The lack of people I know. I was so lucky to get a place in the auror squad here. The job was more demanding than the others but I liked that. It gave me time to distract myself from… life. No. Stop. That. Rose. _Life_ was better without you. _Life_ was having fun. _Life_ shouldn’t be on your mind at the moment.

Anyway, my current job was fun. I loved moving around. It gave me no reason to make attachments and, furthermore, no reason to find a boyfriend.

Well, I say I didn’t want a boyfriend. Because I didn’t but that didn’t mean I didn’t want casual flings. But then they all got too formal and I broke them off. I just thought it would be easier to go through life flitting from country to country, acquaintances to –

“Excuse me, Miss?” The woman at the counter said, “How can I help you today?”

I snapped out of my day dream “Umm, could I have two croissants and a lemon iced tea, please?”

“Sure, miss.” She replied, putting the croissants into a paper bag and placing the bottle if iced tea on the counter.

It was a boiling day in Italy, like over 35 degrees (Celsius), so as soon as I stepped out of the bakery I took a large gulp of tea.

No sooner than I took it did it spray out. I saw _him._ And he saw me.

Malfoy was always pale but he went whiter than a sheet.

 _Should I say hi?_ I thought, _Would it be too awkward?_

I thought I’d wave and then I looked up and he was already walking towards me.

“Hi.” I whispered, not being able to be any louder.

“Hi.” He replied, only a little bit louder than I was.

“How have you been?” I asked to be polite.

“Good, good, yeah…” He said, staring at his feet, “What about you?”.

“Yeah, I’ve been moving around a lot. I really like Italy, the job is so exciting. Yeah…” I said, nodding, as you do…

Malfoy rolled his eyes and sighed, “This is bull-shit, Rosie. Why-”.

“Don’t call me Rosie.”

His eyes widened. “Okay. Weasley, why can’t we actually talk?”

“Okay…” I sighed, “Let’s sit.”

He nodded his head.

We walked over to the park and sat down on a bench.

“So,” I started, “What are you doing in Rome?”

“I’m here with a couple mates from work decided to come up for the weekend. Y’know, for fun.”

“How was auror training? I know it was a while ago but… y’know.” I asked.

“Yeah, it was good, it was hard and tiring but I was definitely the best.” He said, smirking.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “Still so modest”.

“You never had any complaints before.” He said.

That raised the levels of tension in the air.

“Well…” I said, trying to diffuse the amount of awkwardness, “I’m not the same Rose I was 3 years ago.”

“I suppose…” Malfoy replied.

A tall, thin woman with long, straight black hair emerged from behind a corner.

“Scor,” She said, in her aristocratic voice, “the train for London leaves in 20 minutes, let’s go!”

“One moment!” He called back to her. She turned away and started to walk towards the station. “I should probably go…” He said.

“Yeah. It was… _nice-_ ” I was cut off by his lips crashing against mine. For a second, I would’ve sunk into them and surrounded myself in the moment. But I knew I shouldn’t.

I pulled away, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes.

“Malfoy…” I quietly whispered, “Go find a girl – that girl… I don’t know. Have a life and forget about me. You loved me once but there are people out there that are way better and who you will love.”

Malfoy stared at me, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. He looked solemn and sad.

“Rosie,” He started, “You keep telling me to go find the love of my life and I always end up right here. You keep telling me there will be people out there that I will love more than I have ever loved anyone before but, dammit, I’m never gonna find someone like you.”

And with that he walked away. The tears that were threatening to spill had done so. Malfoy didn’t look back. Maybe I wanted him to. Maybe I wanted him to fight for me. But it was over now. I told him to leave. It was in his best interest.

As his figure disappeared into the distance, I turned away, deciding it was best to take a leaf out of his book and not look back. Not physically. Not metaphorically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi - It's me again. Since this is the end of my very first fic I feel very emotional to let it go. I love everyone of you guys that have commented or liked or simply just read. There WILL be a sequel - don't worry! It shall be up in a week or so. I really hope you have enjoyed this journey as much as i have.  
> Love you forever,  
> Red Xx


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